


Strangers in a Strange Land

by skullgrunt



Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, Inkling - Freeform, Octo Expansion, Octo Expansion spoilers are gunna be everywhere in later chapters!!!, Other, Pokemon - Freeform, This is super headcannon heavy, Three is a Pokemon nerd, octoling - Freeform, this is also heavily gay and angsty because im a mess and i love writing shit w/ my best friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2019-06-07 11:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 84,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15218393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skullgrunt/pseuds/skullgrunt
Summary: After saving Inkopolis from certain doom it comes crashing down on a certain Agent that, despite Inkopolis is her supposed new home, she doesn't exactly have anywhere to settle down. Though it seems a certain old Captain has a rather ill-conceived plan for the Octoling's living situation.This is a joint fic between me and my best friend Rad !! There will be potential Octo Expansion spoilers here and what not.





	1. Inkopolis' Newest Arrival!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! This is my first fic that I've published in a long time (and its going to be longer than 1 chapter don't worry) I'm working on it with a close friend and its been so fun to write so far. I got a lot planned so I'll hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did writing this first part! <3

_Pale summer moonlight shimmers on the seafloor.  
An Octopus, unaware that dawn will bring capture,  
Rests within a trap, dreaming fleeting dreams._

High above the Inkopolis sea, with wind tousling through her tentacles, was Inkopolis newest resident and savior.

Standing on a platform being carried by an armada of helicopters, she kept an eye on the horizon. There were so many buildings, so much space. Even the largest domes had their defined edge but this skyline looked as if it reached forever.

“You can sit down, you know.”

A voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she glanced over to the source.

The recovering Agent Three of the Squidbeak Splatoon (still holding her bandaged head in slight pain from the whole ordeal) was looking directly at her. Eight felt her skin crawl at the piercing, dreadfully familiar gaze. The two made eye contact for a moment. A battle of wills was briefly enacted before a move was finally made. Wincing slightly, Eight slowly moved to sit down, crossing her legs and shifting just a little to be as comfortable as one could on a metal platform. 

A sigh left her in relief. She’d been on her feet for as long as she could recall, running around and fighting a giant world ending statues with little sleep tended to tire a person out. A _woosh_ of wind brushed over her, the scent of sea salt, so distant to the musty stale air of the metro, making her softly inhale and savour it. 

“Feeling better?”

Quiet as it was, it still snapped her out of her thoughts once more. The newly freed Octoling looked to the not so quietly trio as if they were the ones she was talking to. Finding out that it was directed at her made her voice jump.

“M-much.”

The consistent chatter between Pearl, Marina and Craig didn’t help to stop the awkwardness hanging above the two. Eight had never really had this issue with her Octopod, not like she remembered shit about them, but conversing with someone like Agent Three? This was a whole new level of scary- but then again, she _did_ just save the world. She got nothing to fear no more, so why not try and strike up some friendly conversation!

The words were already leaving her beak before her brain could issue a warning out. 

“What’s Inkocity like?” 

“Inkopolis, you mean.”

“R-right. What’s it like?” 

“Big.”

“... Do you think people will like me over there?” 

“You guys have have your suckers on the outside of your tentacles, it's kinda weird…”

Three flinched- what the hell was she saying? This was Inkopolis’ newest guest! And savoir! 

“But you did just save, y’know, the entire world, I think you’re gonna fit in just fine.”

The rough and tumble agent didn’t expect such a shitty line to get a smile out of the ex-test subject. She hated to say it, but something about that made her feel slightly warm and fuzzy. It was easy enough to pass it off for being hit in the head too many times today. Who knew ancient telephones could be so hard? 

“HEY! We helped!” Pearl called out from the side, even though she was just conversing with Marina and Cuttlefish. 

The rest of the journey, for the most part, was silent. Aside from the occasional banter between the talkative trio on the copter, Eight and Three were always silent for very different reasons. For the octopus, it was a combination of exhaustion and exhilaration. Three, however, had long since forgotten how to small talk. Neither minded. 

They were still quite a ways off from the mainland, and it was getting quite chilly out. Evident by the way Eight was shivering. The poor Octoling looked worn down to the core and Three had to wonder how much rest she got down there. She still wasn’t exactly sure _what_ she’d been doing down there but whatever it was - in those heels - couldn’t have been enjoyable. 

The newest Agent was dropping on and off, her head would tilt to the side every now and then before she’d jolt awake and shudder from the increasingly intense winds of flying over the sea. 

It took all of three wondrous minutes for Three to stand, hand immediately jolting upwards towards her head as it twinged with a sudden pang. Damn headaches. Keeping quiet as to not startle Eight, she began to walk over to the Octoling sitting to the side of her from behind.

Unclipping her homemade cape, she wrapped it around her shoulders and did the collar button up… hopefully that’d help keep her warm. 

When she was met with the eyes of a tired but curious expression, Three swallowed thickly and turned her head away. 

“Loose that and I’ll have to fight you again” 

Eight’s hands jerked up to grab the collar and hold it, curiosity turned to slight panic as Three raised her hands up. 

“I-I didn’t mean it.” 

 

* * *

Once the full on army of Helicopters had landed near Inkopolis (Pearl had been planning to land them in the middle of the square but Marina had insisted that was a terrible idea and they should find a better place to land away from the general public) Eight could finally stretch properly without the fear of the wind literally knocking her backwards or worse, into the ocean.

The walk back to the square was pretty quiet. Cuttlefish had asked if it would be alright for all of them to go see his grandkids and everyone seemed to be in agreement- Aside from Pearl and Marina. The two seemed to have gotten a call from someone rather important and had to dash off, calling to Eight to keep in contact as they took their leave. 

Eight felt slightly uneasy about returning to a place like this. Even though this was the Canyon and not the Valley being in a place so close to her original home made her stress- made apparent by the way she was clutching to the side of Three’s cape and fiddling with it as they entered through the manhole.

Once the group had surfaced, all attention had been turned on them. Three hadn’t expected more than just the sisters. Her eyes met with with the shorter of the two sitting beside Callie, an Inkling she'd never seen before donning what seemed to be new Agent gear? Perhaps? The two appearing to be playing some sort of card game… Squinting for a second, she recognised it as Snap. 

It took all of four seconds for Callie to leap up, cards flying everywhere all over the floor (much to 4’s displeasure) and fly straight towards Cuttlefish. Marie followed, but not with as much energy as her cousin seemed to display. The two excitedly chattering around their grandfather. 

Callie’s continuous chatter was put on hold when she caught a glimpse of the cape-wearing Octoling, before a loud gasp left her. “Gramps! How many times have I told you it’s not nice to kidnap Octolings! I know you don’t like them but still, we need to let this one go... ”

“Ah- No no, Callie! This here is the newest Agent of the Squidbeak Splatoon!” The elder Inkling raised his cane in the air to display how exciting this new point was, much to the cousin’s disbelief.

“Newest _Agent_ ?”, the two said in unison, both having very different reactions to the situation. 

Marie’s expression was one of pure disbelief, the brella that usually hung over her shoulder drooping to add to the overall exaggeration. Callie, on the other hand, looked as if she’d been given the Nobel prize. 

“Are you serious?!” 

Callie bounced over to the confused Octarian, grabbing her clawed hands and shaking them up and down rapidly. “Hi there!! I’m Callie, it’s so lovely to meet you welcome to the Squidbeak Splatoon!!”, she managed in a single breath.

Eight seemed a little overwhelmed already from the overexcited Idol’s enthusiastic shaking. “We’ve never had an Octoling here before!! In the Splatoon, I mean. Hey!! Do you wanna see my tattoo-” 

“Gramps, are you seriously letting an Octoling join the forces?” 

“But of course! She saved Inkopolis from ultimate doom and destruction! She’s as fit as any of the other Agent’s here!” 

_She what?_

____

____

Three suddenly felt another headache kicking in, waking up in the midst of helicopters atop the ocean wasn’t exactly something that gave her a lot of time to really go over what she’d been told on the flight back… Eight had done what again exactly?

Before she had time to even rethink it, a tug on her sleeve drew her out of her thoughts. Despite being a hardened Agent, Three’s immediate response was to flinch back- A lot had happened today, give her a break.

Glancing down to who had tugged her jacket, she was met with a shorter Inkling smiling up at her. Marie’s rambles to Cuttlefish were momentarily halted when she noticed the two looking at each other. 

“Oh, right. Agent Three, meet Agent Four.” 

Four raised a hand give Three a wave, hunching their shoulders, Three offered a less keen one back- she wasn’t a social butterfly on the best of days, let alone after the bonanza that this was. 

_I leave for a day or three and they’ve already gotten another Agent… Geez, they really know how to swipe kids up from the street._

 

“S-S... S’up?” Was all she could really offer the shorter Agent, looking away awkwardly. Why did she feel so unconfident? It was just a young Inkling - was it because she wasn’t wearing her cape?

Three’s ears perked when she came back from wondering if it really was the cape that gave her any shred of confidence to do stupid, foolhardy things - wait, where did Four go?

Looking around, the location of the shorter Inkling had been found. Right by Eight. The Octoling now surrounded by both Callie and Four, excitedly looking over her. It seemed from Eight’s own expression she hadn’t expected this much attention and since Marie was too busy talking to Cuttlefish, no one was there to stop Callie from blathering on and on to the new recruit… Three nearly felt bad for the Octopus. 

“But Gramps, She’s an Octoling- The ones were supposed to be against!... They kidnapped Callie and _brainwashed_ her!” 

“Oh please, Marie- There’s no need to over exaggerate! Besides, Agent 8 is comrade now! A friend! As much as she’s still an Octoling, she’s a trustworthy one.” 

The Agent winced at the elders words, feeling a stab of pity for the unfortunate cephalopod. She could feel the tension from here. Though, thankfully, on Eight’s side of things she was a little too focused on the excitable duo to worry too much about background conversation. Although...

As much as she’d been trying to keep her focus on the two excitedly bouncing around her and keep up with their conversation, ever since she’d arrived Eight had felt as if someone was watching her. 

Once she had a spare moment to actually bring her attention away from the other two, she glanced over her shoulder, only to come with an all to familiar stare… 

The last thing she would’ve expected was to see Octavio giving her a glance from his globe. The Agent swallowed thickly, even with being tired out of her mind, several alarm bells were ringing at full volume. 

Guilt, embarrassment and several other bad feelings were all mixed into one particularly nasty mess in the pit of her stomach as she found herself getting slightly lost in his glare. Those green sclera becoming more sickening to look at every second and seemed to have suddenly turned an even harsher shade with white stripes- _What._

Blinking once or twice she was quick to realise that Three had stepped only slightly in front of her, unknown to Eight was the look Octavio was currently being flashed. To which was read clear and simple. 

_Back Off._

Octavio seemed to take the hint, swishing his body sideways in a huffy motion. Three couldn’t stop the smirk prying on her lips.. It wasn’t as if her and DJ Octavio had the best history, but pissing him off from a simple glance felt oh so satisfying. 

Turning back to see if Eight was ok, Three’s shoulders jumped up. “E-Eight!” 

The Octoling in question was staring up directly at the sky - or more accurately, directly into the coddamn sun. Nice. Not even a full day up here and Eight was already trying to blind herself. Wonderful start. Three’s hand snaked around the other girls wrist, yanking it rather harshly to get her attention. 

“Hey! Don’t do that! You can hurt your eyes by staring directly into the sun, don’t you know that?” 

“I haven’t seen…. the sun before, not until today.” Even though Eight was a little spacy (Can you blame her after that whole mess?) a tiny smile registered on her features. The Sun… so that’s what they called it. “I like it.” 

“T-that’s great ‘n all but.. You can’t go around staring at the sun.” Three huffed. Eight seemed to know nothing about topside, how on earth was she gonna live up here on her own? 

“Captain Cuttlefish, s-sir?” Three addressed the elder Inkling with the most respect she could draw from her tired, cracking voice. 

Said Inkling turned, even though he seemed to be midway in conversation with Marie, who looked as if she’d lost all hope when her Grandfather turned her attention away from her. 

“We can’t let Eight roam around out here. Not on her own anyways, she doesn’t know anything about what it’s like, she’ll fall down a manhole or something… Is there somewhere we can house her somewhere safe so she doesn’t hurt herself?”

“Hmn... You have quite the point, Three. Oh, I’ve got it! She can stay with you!” 

Several loud ‘ _WHAT’s_ sounded from four different people, all with varying tones. 

“S-Sir you cannot be serious!” 

“Oh but I am, Three! You’ve been working too hard lately. I never see you hanging out with any friends, and isn’t that whats ‘in’ right now for young Inklings, hanging out with friends?” 

“... Captain, I’m twenty.”

“That,” he continued, without even acknowledging what the Agent said, “and you two already know each other. You’ve tried to kill each other at least twice now, and if that doesn’t spell out best friends already I must be going senile!” 

There was a few responses Three could’ve dished out, but she decided to keep her beak shut on this one. The looks the Squid Sisters sent her way might’ve had something to do about it too.

“Gramps, I think Three is right.” Callie piped in. “Besides, me and Marie can take her in! We have space, right?” 

“No, we don’t!” 

“Now, now; Callie. You and Marie have tight work schedules, you wouldn’t be able to take in someone who needs so much help navigating this large city! Besides, I’m going to give Three a long vacation; that poor girl has been working herself to her non-existent bones, haha!” 

“Sir, please. I don’t think this would be the best idea, w-what about the other Agent? That one?” She pointed towards the shorter Inkling still standing beside Callie, all eyes turning to them.

Four raised their hands up, shaking their head. “B-Busy” was all they managed to get out. “W-With.. Turf” Their voice was meek, but it was at least understandable.They cleared their throat, before holding a fist in front of their chest, moving it in a circular motion to say sorry to the group. 

“Well I guess that settles it!” Cuttlefish raised his cane, pointing it directly at Three. “You can take Eight home with you, and you take some time off too! You deserve a long vacation after this, no buts!” 

About to interject, Three’s ears flattened to the side of her head as she looked away. She always did struggle with objecting orders from Cuttlefish. 

“Yes, Sir…” 

With plans set in place, the duo wasn’t destined to stay in the canyon for too long. Three and Eight said their goodbyes before exiting through the manhole. The entire trip back was mostly silent as Three let the Octoling stop to look at whatever she was interested in - mainly the setting sun bathing everything in a soft orange glow. Soon enough exhaustion crept up on both Cephalopods, so a proper introduction to the square would have to wait. 

The not so long walk brought the two to Three’s apartment and had the Agent fumbling around in her pocket to tug out her house keys. Working with Cuttlefish meant she wasn’t exactly home often. If she was more awake she would’ve worried about the state of her home, but right now all that was on her mind was crashing in bed.

With a soft creak, the door swung open into a rather small looking living space. It looked as if it’d been untouched for some time if the thin layer of dust was any indication. Right beside the door off to the right was a kitchen complete with unwashed plates. Straight ahead was a single sofa, the couch cushions strewn on the floor. Various cans of soda littered the base of a TV sat in front, several games consoles with tangled wires sat below the screen and multiple controllers sitting off to the side. A pile of games that’d been knocked over was to the right of set up. A hallway unseen to the new arrival could be spotted next to the couch. Eight, who only recently learned what a ‘house’ even was, couldn't have guessed what was down there. 

Three’s ear twitched in distaste. This place was a mess, yet fatigue stopped the Agent from really caring all that much. 

She cleared her throat and stepped inside, moving back to let Eight in. Her head tilted at the way the Octoling approached the situation. Her whole frame was hesitant; her hands were gripped tightly together as she peered around the room before taking the first step in, shoulders hitched, even her breathing hastened.

The silence was now getting under Three’s skin, it was becoming more than stifling to just stand here and watch the other take a step every other minute or so. 

“You- uh. You don’t need to be scared, it’s just my house. Worst thing in here is probably a spider I have yet to remove, so-” She gave a shrug. Why was it so hard to talk to her?

Still nothing from her house guest. Hmn. Looking her up and down once more (Oh hey! Look at that, she’d taken another step in. At least she was past the door now) Three finally got a decent look at the horrendous outfit she was wearing. 

“Okay, before we do anything, we should probably get you out of those clothes. Those can’t be that comfortable. I have some old ge- w-wAIT WAIT WOAH!” 

Yes, Three wanted to get her out of that attire as soon as possible. No, she had not expected Eight to immediately start unzipping her crop top right in front of her. There was far too much skin being exposed for the admittedly body shy Three to be comfortable with as she hastily raised her entire arm to cover her vision. 

“E-Eight! Y-Ya can’t just, just _strip_ in front of me, the doors still open for squids’ sake!” 

“But you… told me too?” 

“Yeah. B-But. But… T-This is something you usually do in private!” 

“...Are all Inklings this fussy?” 

“F-Fussy? I’m not fussy! It’s just… Not _normal_ to just STRIP in front of someone! Just-” Reaching across, Three shut her door with a little more effort than she intended to, her bright teal face showing surprise at how loud that slam was. Judging back Eight’s reaction, it spooked Eight just as much.

“Turn around ‘n get changed. I’m gonna go grab you some clothes, okay?” Trying to maintain eye contact - and only eye contact - with her current guest proved to be quite the issue with that zip was still unzipped. Turning around to head down the aforementioned hallway, she paraded off in a huff, teal tinted ears flicking a glob of ink against the wall as she disappeared.

The Octoling stood, puzzled. Had she done something wrong? Sighing softly, she finally removed that ridiculous leather shirt, letting it drop to the floor. It felt good to be free of that tight fitting clothing. Now! Time to take a little peek around. Turning on her heel, she began to examine the most mundane things, not really moving from where she was but just... taking everything in. Walls were apparently _very_ interesting right now. 

“Alright. So they might be a bit big on you but... Your back.” 

“Hmn?” 

Eight turned, only to see Three panic and drop the clothes she was holding in a flustered motion. “S-Stay. Please stay t-turned around!” 

“But you mentioned my back? What’s wrong with it?” 

“It’s uh-” _Ok Three, be nice, she’s been through a horrible ordeal. Something you can’t even imagine. You don’t even know what happened down there. Break it to her nicely._ “It’s all fucked up.” 

The current quest to get naked in the middle of Three's house was put on halt as she moved a shaking hand to her back, slowly pressing it down and flinching when she something wet. Wet and unpleasant. Goosebumps flooded her skin at the sudden lash of pain.

Three froze. Shit. That was still fresh, fresh and pretty damn disgusting. “Hang on, Don’t move.” 

All of the previous embarrassed, shyness from the Agent had gone within moments notice. Three pretty much catapulting herself across the tiled floors of her admittedly small kitchen to get to a certain drawer. It took a few moments of digging through it but she eventually pulled out scissors and cotton bandages, raising them up in a triumphant little motion. 

Turning back to her guest, Three froze as she was now faced with a fully shirtless Octoling holding one hand out to her. As much as she felt that rising blush threatened to cover her features once more, she was more focused on what the other was staring at and why she looked so terrified. It took a few seconds of tracing her line of sight but it became obvious pretty quickly.

Scissors. 

Lowering them immediately at the realisation, Three’s ears flattened slightly. “N-no no no, it’s okay! I know they’re sharp but they won’t do anything to you! Promise!” 

Eight’s hand lowered, though her stance could still be read as defensive. 

“They’re just for cutting t-the uh. The bandages.” 

Slowly but surely the Agent moved back over to her, keeping the scissors pointed down towards the floor. “Okay, turn around.” 

“I don’t want to.” 

Orange amber met soft blue as the two made eye contact. Eight was slightly taller than her, even though Three blamed the heels that she still hadn’t taken off, everything about her was different. The two were near opposites of each other in most ways. 

“Eight, that wound is gonna get infected real bad if I don’t bandage that. It’s still fresh and -”, she leaned to the side slightly, watching a glob of teal ink land on her carpet, “Still dripping. We gotta make sure it doesn’t get worse than it already is. So just turn around so I can at least cover it. So can you _please_ just do me a solid and turn around?” 

Begrudgingly, she turned around, exposing her damaged back. Three bit her lip at the damage done. The dark skin near Eight’s sides was stained teal, but as it got closer to her actual back the deeper the wound got. The lower half of her back was the part that was still dripping, it looked open and utterly painful. She was pretty sure she could see veins throbbing if she looked close enough.

“This might hurt just a lil’ bit but I swear I ain’t doin’ it on purpose”, was all she muttered as she took a few steps closer, unravelling the bandages. Cod dammit, why were her hands shaking? She’d bandaged wounds before, hadn’t she? Was it because she’d never seen wounds this bad before or was it because it was Eight? Her mind was left to linger on that question as Eight’s shoulders sagged, if Three had been more conscious instead of lost in her thoughts she would’ve noticed how tense the other looked as she began to wrap the fabric around her stomach softly, starting from the top and slowly working her way down. 

By the time she got to the lower half, Eight was shaking. Each withdrawn breath and jolt from the simplest of touches made the usually reserved Inkling’s ear twitch. Ink immediately soaked the fabric once applied but that should at least help. Snipping the loose end off and making sure it was bound correctly, she finally turned to pick up the discarded clothing from earlier. Handing Eight the pile, she immediately turned, letting her know that she was going to grab her some pillows and stuff so she wouldn’t have to sleep without some form of warmth and disappeared once again down the hall. 

Left alone once more, Eight sighed. Closing her eyes for a few blissful moments before tugging the shirt over her head. Three was right, this was kinda big on her. It stopped a little more than just above her knees. If there was a reflective surface nearby, Eight would’ve rolled her eyes at how silly it looked. 

Slowly but surely the leather clothes worn down from various tests were swapped out with soft fabric. Eight had never felt so comfortable in her entire life, so much so that she nearly forgot to take her heels off. Leaning down she slowly tugged the zippers down on each sides and stepped out of them.

_Oh._

… The ground was so soft. 

“Ok, so you get the sofa and all of this soft stuff. I gave you extra pillows because-” Three, who at this point had become a walking blanket holding several pillows, stopped mid sentence to glance down at the Octoling who was currently laying on her floor.

“Uh. Eight?” 

A rush of panic ran down Three’s spine as she quickly moved to kneel down in front of the other. Oh god, please don’t be dead, please don’t be de- A loud snort interrupted literally any and all thoughts. Well… That answered that. 

Sighing softly, Three took a second to sit down cross legged on her floor, taking a moment to look over the snoozing cephalopod. Why’d Cuttlefish have to assign Eight to her? There had to be someone out there better qualified for taking care of her. Three was literally the least social squid she knew. Really, aside from the Agency she was the ONLY squid she knew. It was hard to maintain any sort of relationships when you’re working 24/7 with the agency. How many years had it been now? A sudden pang from her head made her flinch, raising a hand to rub at her temples. 

Dull, tired eyes took one last look at Eight. It quickly became apparent that Three, up until this point, had never seen her looking so peaceful; granted, they’d only just met a mere few hours ago but from what she could remember over that short period of time was someone who always looked calculated or in thought... Or just plain up nervous. Her eyes drifted towards the piece of fabric still hanging from the back of the Octoling… Oh! 

Her cape! She was still wearing that? She figured Eight would’ve ditched the thing the second she got into some warmer, less revealing clothes but nope! There it was! Leaning over carefully, she unlipped it from around her neck and folded it as she didn’t want the thing get anymore dusty and ruined than it already was. 

Speaking of dusty, the floor wasn’t exactly the best place for her house guest to be sleeping. As weary as the Inkling was she needed to do something. Picking her up seemed to be out of the question, she didn’t want to possibly do any more damage to her back. Bringing her thumb to her mouth she took a second to think, a few options came to mind but none seemed to stick all that well with her. 

Finally, she decided she’d set Eight up where she was. Being as gentle as one could with such an aggressive track record - she lifted the other girls head up; placing two pillows beneath and making sure it wasn’t too raised. Since she was laying on her side, the worry about her back being in an uncomfortable position was beginning to get more and more evident. Being as careful as she could, she tried to slide one of the remaining pillows under 8’s waist to give her back a little more support - though it seemed this particular pillow was a little too fluffy. 

It took Three a few minutes to find a less fluffier pillow to slip under her back but she was at least somewhat satisfied with this set up. It was better than just sleeping on the floor with nothing but her clothes. Once the blanket was tossed over her she shuffled back and stood up, raising one arm above her head to stretch. Hopefully Eight was as comfortable as she looked. 

Glancing over to the sofa, she wondered if - just for tonight - she should rest there. Leaving her alone to sleep on the floor felt rather _cruel_ to the squid, but then again maybe it’d be better to give her some space and find her footing. She didn’t want to suffocate her after all. She instead decided to retreat to her room; leaving the Octoling a note in front of her to read whenever she decided to wake up. Nothing special, she just hoped her scrawly handwriting was legible. 

_At least she seemed to be sleeping soundly._ Even laying in her own bed, sleep seemed to be eluding her. She knew the eventual exhaustion would knock her into unconsciousness eventually but there was never a set time for that sort of thing, so instead she was left to her ever loud and present thoughts as her eyes slowly slipped shut.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first real morning between the two ends with a surprise trip to the Canyon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this taking so long! Writers block hits me super often so I have no idea when the next chapter will be but I am looking forward to starting on it asap!! We really hope you enjoy it <3 !! And thank you for such lovely comments and feedback, we could've never expected such an awesome response!
> 
> The broken down Squee-G idea belongs to http://hoaxghost.tumblr.com/ Please check out their art its a huge inspiration to me and their agents are perfect! Thank you so much for letting me use it!

_Nothing, nothing in this world could compare to the open air of the mountains. Inkopolis Plaza was always so full of people, the air was always masked with the scent of freshly cooked food and fresh ink from turf. Not that that was a bad atmosphere, it was just as humble, but in her opinion. Nothing compared to being out here._

_Hand’s behind a stiff straight back, her steps completely out of sync with the elder Inkling hobbling along in front of her._

_“Not too far now, Three! The cape is just a short 30 minutes away from our exact location!”_

_She doubted that._

_“Oh, Three, did I ever tell you the story about how the Squidbeak Splatoon took down the entire Octarian army in just a night? I’m going to judge by your silence that thats a big old no! So. It was a dark night in late November, maybe it was June? Pah, the details don’t matter. I had my trusty Bamboozler ready and-”_

_That was enough from him. Three always took orders digintly from the Captain without question; in fact nowadays she struggled to say no to him. But she’d heard this story a million times, and it was as boring as the first hundred. Pulling her headphones up, she tugged her phone out and scanned through her music library. This should be loud enough to drone the old fool out._

_Despite enjoying their pieces, Three was never the biggest Squid Sister fan. Yes, she was listening to one of their pieces right now but that was her own issue by pressing shuffle. She briefly wondered if everything that happened a few years back in the canyon was the reason the cousins’ tunes weren’t her favourite to listen too. Perhaps._

_Humming along softly under her breath, her eyes slipped shut for a moment. Spending so much time with Cuttlefish meant a break from his voice was one of the most rarest yet soothing things she could think of. Nothing but her and her music._

_“-ENT THREE!” Arms suddenly shaking her shoulders was enough to break her out of the peaceful daydream like state the Inkling had put herself in._

_Tugging one side of her headphones down, her eyes flicked open, looking down at the rambling elder in front of her. What on earth did he want now?_

_“An Octoling! She’s right over there, don’t’ let ‘em get away Three! Go, go!!”_

_He pointed his cane across the pathway towards some stray bushes, Three’s eyes were met with tanned skin and a deer in the headlights look._

_It was just basic instinct at this point, Three’s hand promptly moving to grab her Hero Shot sitting snugly on her belt. Though before she could even raise it, globs of dark purple were already being shot at her._

_Dodge rolling to the side, and huffing under her breath that her cape had once again gotten snagged on nearby flora, she managed to get the Octoling in her sights once more. Trying to close the gap between the two of them she took another risky roll right towards her, finger ready to press down on the trigger._

_This was no different than any other time Cuttlefish had ordered her to take down an Octoling, Three’s mind strayed elsewhere as she tried to get a hit on the other. The amount of bushes topping this mountain was proving to be an issue to navigate around, but she was so close to taking the other down; she could feel it. Just a little-_

**SMASH**

Three shot up, drool caked to her chin and one tentacle sticking upright towards the ceiling. Her vision had barely come into play before she was already scrambling to get out of bed, unaware that her foot was tangled in the sheets. The agent fell forward and collided with the floor of her bedroom with a dull thud. Groaning, she pushed herself up, not taking even a second to steady herself from the fall she immediately sprinted outside of her bedroom door. Stumbling awkwardly down the hall she froze as she reached the living room; eyes settling on what exactly happened.

Eight stood, hands shaking, in a hunched position above a smashed blender that lay on the floor. Orange eyes drifted towards Three, with what she could only assume was guilt? Her ears flattened to the point of being nearly unseen as she glanced away. Neither were unsure of what to say as a deafening silence coated the apartment. Which Three decided to break almost instantly. Standing up a little straighter, she squinted, still not used to the intense light barging its way through the window just yet. After all, her room had been casted in darkness and she’d just woken up.

“I mean. Okay. Is this a normal Octoling thing? Smashing blenders?” 

“I don’t… I, uh-” Eight’s hands gripped each other tightly, squeezing her fingers. She knew what she did was wrong, yet something about seeing such a similar object once again set her off in more ways than one. “I don’t like blenders.” 

“Why not? What’s wrong with-” Three’s eyes widened suddenly as realisation hit her. Right. _Right._ Her memories from yesterday were still kind of hazy. The Agent was still coming to grips with what exactly went down and smashing through a blender was one of the details she’d completely forgotten. Mostly because she went through an ancient telephone at Super Jump speeds right beforehand. 

“Oh, right the - right.” She took a moment, flashing the other a slightly apologetic look, even though it just looked like a somewhat normal scowl to Eight. “Gotcha. No blenders.” 

Three sighed softly before raising an arm above her head to stretch, shuddering lightly as muscles readjusted themselves back into proper position. “You uh... Well, no worries about the blender” ‘ _even though i really wanted to test that one out… how am i supposed to make smoothes now?_ ’ “Lemmie clear this up though, so can ya move outta the way?” 

Even after stretching, the Agent stilled look groggy and tired, added a little confused at the fact the octoling wasn’t moving. “Uh… Eight?” 

Side stepping away so she wasn’t in front of the glass, she raised her arms lazily. “And don’t walk over the glass, kay? I’m pretty sure you knew that and all but… still. Just in case, this ways safer.” 

Slowly but surely, Eight shuffled to the side walking away from the smashed blender with a look that Three could only describe as a puppy caught doing something they shouldn’t. Telling the Octoling to stay put, Three headed back down the hall to the closet that was situated right at the end. Returning a few seconds later with a broom that looked like the most dirtiest thing in Three’s house so far, the top half covered in cobwebs and dust, though the tired Agent couldn’t seem to care less as she placed a pan down on the tiles and began to push the glass forward. 

About to toss the remains into the trash her ears perked at a sudden noise, turning around to glance at Eight with a tilted head. She was met with a shy look from the Octoling who’s gaze was rooted to the carpet.

“Oh, ya hungry? You could’a told me-” Three firmly planted the broom on the kitchen floor once the glass was properly tossed, leaning against the handle and holding the hand with the pan upright in a lazy shrugging motion. “I ain’t gonna bite or nothin’. You’re uh my houseguest now, and I’m not just gonna lock ya in some closet or give you orders, you’re like- a guest in Inkopolis an’ stuff, you live here now. Ya don’t got a worry about a single thing, ok?” 

Now, Three was never really someone who thought too heavily about where she landed on the sexuality spectrum (there was more important things to worry about, like Chunk collecting and what not) but from their first experience with romance, they never were really interested in guys from the start and the feeling that just ran down her back, looped around and smashed straight into their heart- causing it to sky rocket up into their throat seemed to spell out the words “big lesbian” pretty clearly. 

The one window that sat to the left of Three had the blinds wonky enough to allow a sudden line of sunlight to sneak through, which happened to hit Eight at a rather pretty angle, not to mention the tiny smile resting on her features as the two made eye contact. Three couldn’t even explain the harsh teal hue coating her cheeks as she pressed her elbow down on the broom harder. The added force to which caused it to slip, bringing Three down with it. The results were predictable - causing the squid to hit the floor with a loud thunking sound. It was a terrible wake up call, but a wake up call nonetheless as she slowly pushed herself onto her knees with a soft huff. She was just gonna covered in bruises today, wasn’t she?

Meanwhile, on the Octoling’s side of things, the only real reason Eight had even smiled in the first place was due to how stupid Three looked. Of course, the Inkling wouldn’t have known that as she was too busy trying to let Eight know that she was welcome here, that she didn't have to worry, all that nice stuff. But it was hard to take the hardened agent seriously when one of her tentacles was literally pointing towards the ceiling and her fringe was pointed literally every other direction. 

As much as she appreciated Three’s words, it still wasn’t as easy as just settling in and being done with it. Eight never would’ve expected to have seen her in a situation such of this, since any memories she could even hazily remember of Three contained a lot of emotions she'd rather not dwell on. Even while smiling at her beforehand, she had her claws clasped together tightly in front of her, still not as relaxed as Three probably wished she was. But then again, it wasn't like Three could tell, she wasn't really the best at figuring out if people were relaxed or not. Cephalopeople emotions were hard. So was the ground. Speaking of which! Eight couldn’t just leave the Inkling on the floor, could she? _Even if the fall was pretty funny, it was kind of difficult to hold back a laugh._

Unclasping her hands, she took a few steps forward to hold her hand out to the other, even though the other was looking at the floor- probably trying to get over the sudden fall. Though it didn’t take more than a few seconds for Three to realise a hand was being offered to her. She shouldn’t have been surprised that her grip was that strong when Three’s hand grabbed hers and hauled herself up with a mumbled ‘thank you’.  
“Ok, so… Food? What do you wanna eat? Can’t promise I got much in here since its been a while buuuut…” Hell, what did Octoling’s even eat? Were their diets different to Inklings? Three had no idea. 

“You got any rocks?”

“... Octolings…Eat rocks?” 

The look on Three’s face was priceless, at least to Eight. It was hard to push down a smirk. 

“Oh yeah, sure, there’s not really a lot down in the domes other than rocks to eat so, y’know.” she shrugged, horizontal pupils flicking over to the other.

Who seemed to have several thoughts going through her head judging by the completely lost expression on her face. They ate… _Rocks?_ How did their beaks not completely shatter? Were rocks softer in the Valley? Most importantly, how quickly could she book a dentist to get this poor cephalopod’s beak checked out?

A soft chuckle snapped Three out of her thoughts, pupils becoming sharp slits for a few seconds as she looked over to the other with a confused almost-pout. 

“We don’t really eat rocks. It’s been really a long while since uh, I’ve eaten anything in the last few days so any food sounds pretty good right now.” 

Honestly, the last thing she remembered eating that was close to ‘food’ was back in the domes. It was hard to find food down there with so many soldiers, it often resorted to bugs and whatever else they could scrounge together. Moss, weird translucent squirmy things found in puddles, and actually rocks if you were desperate enough. Seagulls were a rarity, that was what stuck out in Eight’s head most. That, and the taste-sensation of feathers in her mouth. If she was honest with herself, she had no idea what food topside was like. She’d heard rumors while in her pod, of course, but it wasn’t like she could determine if they were true or not. Frankly, most of them sounded fake to her. What sort of mad chief monstrosity was a triple fried shrimp and waffle sandwich with whip cream and chocolate of all things anyways?

So lost in her thoughts, Eight didn’t see the unamused squint Three flashed her, her ear twitching before she finally spoke up again. 

“Okay.. So, uh, how about cereal?” The Agent was pretty sure that was the only thing left in these cupboards that possibly wasn’t past its best by date. She was barely home, but cereal was a great midnight snack, so hopefully whatever was left would be good enough to eat. Already turning to try and reach the cupboard above the countertop, she paused as Eight’s voice piped up.

“What’s… cereal?” 

“You really don’t know what cereal is?” Three shot her a confused look, feeling a pang of pity for the Octoling across from her. The domes must’ve really been a complete state. _No cereal? How did they live!_

“Ah, well, cereals like. This stuff you can eat that’s sometimes sugary and healthy and it tastes really good. Some people have it with milk and others don’t but uh- just try it. It’s okay if ya don’t like it or anything, we can easily getcha something else but still.”

Finally yanking down the box (Three being so short really didn’t help matters, the box nearly collided with her when she got it down), with a mental note not to put it so high next time, and flipped it around to check that she wasn’t going to be giving her house guest stale cereal. 

Three figured since cereal without milk wasn’t all that common she’d add just a little Eight’s bowl regardless and hoped that she wasn’t lactose intolerant or anything. Tugging two bowls out and making sure they were cleaned (Cod knows how long they’d been sitting in there) and messily pouring cereal and milk into both, she left one on the counter, letting Eight know it was there before retreating to the sofa. 

Kicking a can or two away from the bottom of it she slumped down into the cushions, sighing softly at the clearly worn but comfy state of the old thing, spoonful-ing a decent amount of cereal into her beak. Cod. it felt good to actually eat something, that trip to the cape a few days back that got cut short due to _reasons_ didn’t exactly have any MakoMart’s along the way. It might’ve been slightly stale but the food was so, so good right now.

Raising the spoon once more she turned her head, slightly curious to see if Eight was enjoying their first topside meal, about to take another bite before seeing the sight in front of her. Spoon completely abandoned on the counter and bowl raised like a cup being held with two clawed hands. Eight stood upright downing the bowl like a drink, and judging by how fast, she was hungrier than Three could’ve expected. ‘ _Cod I hope she doesn’t eat the drywall or something_ ’, a voice somewhere in the back of her head muttered. 

The sheer confusion on Three’s face at the others actions were definitely… _something._ She wasn’t exactly disgusted, nor confused, nor freaked out. It was a weird emotion mixed into one expression the rather non-expressive Agent didn’t even know she could pull off. 

_Well… If that’s the way she wants to eat cereal, who am I to stop her?_

Once Three took the last bite of her cereal, she balanced the bowl on her stomach, since she was laying slouched on the sofa. Peering into the milk left over, curiosity was beginning to eat at her. She’d never drank the milk out of a cereal bowl before. Blue eyes flickered over to Eight once more, who seemed to have finished a while back and was idly fiddling with her hands while looking around. The bowl was already being raised before Three’s conscious mind could even react to what she was doing, downing the rest of the milk within seconds. That wasn’t actually half bad! It didn’t taste as gross as she thought it would.

With a slight groan, Three finally sat up, just to deposit the bowl on the floor before flopping sideways on the sofa. She didn’t care what the time was, nor even if it was morning at this point. Three wasn’t a morning person period, morning to her being after she wakes up. It wasn’t exactly like she forgot she had Eight standing in her kitchen most likely unsure what to do next, it was more like she attempted to drown the entire world out and just go back to sleep on her sofa. 

Eight, on the other hand, was doing exactly that. Standing and being unsure. The food was literally great, she hadn’t felt so energized in a long time and honestly, she wanted more. Her eyes drifted towards the opened cereal box left on the countertop… Maybe. Her focus stayed glued on Three as sneaky steps were taken backwards, her hand lashed into the box as fast as possible, pulling out a handful of whatever was left inside and shoving it into her beak, trying not to crunch too loudly. 

With Three sleeping (?) on the sofa, Eight was now left to her own devices. She took a glanced around the admittedly small area designated to the kitchen. It really did seem like Three hadn’t been here in a long time, and part of that confused her. This was nicer than any dome she’d ever been stationed in, why not just spend all of her time here? Taking a few steps forward and off of the cold tile of the kitchen, she peered around the room cautiously, keeping her hands close to her chest. Her attention was drawn to the various games consoles left by the TV. Something about the way they were shaped and the way they looked were familiar, yet Eight had sworn she’d never seen tech like this before. 

Whatever they were, Three had quite the collection! 

Every step the Octoling took was soft and cautious, still feeling noisy even on soft carpet. It was just instinct really, ingrained from a lifetime in precarious structures. Most of the places back at the Valley were known for being desolate and empty, haunted too on top of that. Being loud was just asking for trouble. Fragile walls and rusted ceilings made from old, unrecognisable material never did respond well to loud footsteps or shouting. Not to mention what echos back.

Eight shook her reminensing off. She slumped down onto her knees once closer to get a look at the consoles up close, her curiosity was driving her towards investigation. What were they? Information of some kind? If so, why were they so poorly organized? Octarian tech was often locked up not only to save on precious safe, but to make sure as not to damage them. She drew a hand over the top of the closest one, leaving claw like shapes in the dust settled on top. They didn’t seem touch activated, so what was the point of these things? The sound of fabric shifting caused her ears to perk, turning her head to glance over at Three who’d just moved downwards slightly, tentacle draping over and spilling onto the floor. For all the times Eight had seen Three, it’d been a rather bad situation. Always a fight, if you counted escaping from a giant blender count as a fight. She guessed it was more of a rescue scenario than anything but she disgressed; to her, Three was really strong and also kinda stupid. All the more reason not to shuffle forward on her knees towards the couch really.

But like that was gonna stop her.

It’s not like she ever really got a chance to see the Agent up close before, it was kind of impossible for her to pass this chance up. She inched ever closer to the edge of the sofa, still on her knees, peering over at the dozing Inkling. Her tentacles were so different, they had tiny scratches and dips taken from them scattered all over. Long as the limbs on a twintacle too. The ear closest to that tentacle had a rather noticeable notch too, she briefly wondered what could’ve caused such a thing. Eyes drifting to Three’s shirt, it dawned on her how odd it was seeing the other out of her Agent gear. 

Other clothes aside from that stuffy jacket looked nice on her in Eight’s opinion, but then again it's not as if that jacket really had good memories tied to it. All in all the Octoling appreciated the up close look, so much so that she’d completely forgotten that the term ‘personal bubble’ existed. Not that that was really a known term to her anyways. Examining her mask, she didn’t expect to be met with sudden blue eyes staring back at her. Before either could get a word out, Three yelped, her head jerking upwards and bashing right into Eight’s with a painful _smack._

Three unceremoniously flopped downwards, face planted in the couch cushions as she groaned. It wasn’t as if the beating yesterday had exactly made her head feel all that great and this was just added to the list. Rolling onto her side, hands still at her head, she slowly opened her eyes as her vision bled back in. A harsh squint caused Eight to come into focus, who was sitting with her legs crossed holding her head. 

“Oh, I- uh, are you- Eight?” Words, unlike looking like a total edgelord, were not Three’s forte.

Moving to sit up catch the Octoling’s eye but garnered no words. It felt near impossible to converse with her most of the time and it wasn’t as if Three’s social skills were anything to write home about. What to do here... She didn't want to move forward and startle her. C'mon Three! Think of something! Taking a breath, she moved a hand to pat the sofa beside her. Hoping the gesture was recieved well.

Eight was going to be sleeping here after all, and she didn’t have to sit on the floor like that, the Inkling wanted to let her know she was welcome to sit up here. Sit wherever really. The kitchen counters, the windowcill, the TV. Okay maybe not the TV. But speaking of such a thing! Attention was turned away from Eight to grab the TV remote and switch the old set on, keeping the volume low as per usual. TV was more of a tune out the background sort of thing for Three. Feeling in a dip in the sofa beside her a moment later the Agent couldn’t deny a slight feeling of satisfaction. Hell yeah! Communication through vague gestures! 

It was quickly becoming obvious to Three how nosy she really was... and how hard it actually was to look at someone without them finding out, just quick glances here and there at the newcomer we're on a dnagerous edge of turning into full on stares. But can you blame her? She was curious on what the Octoling was doing. Her eyes seemed to be set on the TV at first. Nothing unusal. A few more glances; her legs were crossed, hands shoved down between them, she was leaning forward a bit too. She wasn’t sure if it was her brain fooling her, but Three could’ve sworn the tips of her tentacles were wriggling in some way... Huh. Hers surely didn't do that. She looked so curious, interested in everything, it looked now like she was examining the arm rest beside her. Now she was leaning over to look at what Three could only assume was the plug socket? She didn’t know, but it was oddly endearing... kind of. Was it weird to call it cute? Was it weird to call _Eight_ cute? 

‘ _Well she IS pretty cute_ ’, her mind retorted near instantaneously. She could feel the tips of her ears flush a green hue. Shaking her head like a etch-a-sketch only pushed the thought away into the mass pile of many things she refused to think about. 

Turning her attention back to the TV didn’t last as long as she hoped, her ears perking as she heard _something_ coming from beside her. As much as she was trying not to look over, curiosity was eating at the Inkling and the eventual glance was impossible to stop. Eight was tapping her thighs gently with both hands on each, attention to what guessed was the plug socket turned back to the TV as she hummed softly along with her taps. It was to an odd version of the inkantation, used as a commericial type jingle to sell fast food playing quietly on the TV, Three could recognise it instantly. 

‘ _She’s… nothing like what I was told Octolings were like_ ’, Three’s inner voice unhelpfully chimed in, ‘ _But you haven’t known her that long, Cuttlefish told you- they’re cunning and sneaky, strong, always looking for your weak point and then BAM- ya turned into sushi._ ’ 

‘ _Well, yeah, but so far she seems harmless? She hasn’t done anything terrible, she doesn’t look dangerous. Maybe Cuttlefish got it wrong, Octolings don’t seem bad at all…_ ’

‘ _But you’ve hurt so many out in the domes. Out in the Valley_ ', that insidious voice condemned.

Three flinched, her ears immediately spiking upwards. 

‘ _You’ve hurt her. Are any of those scars on her arms from you? Any of those bruises?_ ’ 

Her hand twitched against her leg irritably, mind becoming clouded with more and more thoughts, more and more bad feelings. It was piling up faster than Three could handle, left ear twitching before she finally sat up straight. 

“HA, OK WE’RE GONNA GO TO THE CANYON TODAY, THAT COOL?”, left her beak before anything in her head could tell her to keep it shut. She really hadn’t mean to shout that either, and judging by the surprised look from Eight beside her, it was pretty loud. 

“T-The canyon?... Why?”, said the disturbed agent. Three felt a bead of sweat run down the side of her face. _Why did she even say that?_

“I-It’s good to get some fresh air, the plaza can be, uh, kinda stifling sometimes and you’ve seen the canyon already. A-Also Callie and Marie are usually there, or so I’ve heard, and I bet C-Callie would like to see you again” Three’s bullshitting skills were as low of number as her name. Luckily for her it seemed the Octoling bought it. That or she wasn’t willing to argue with such, ahem, explosiveness. Three immediately stood, stretching slightly with a small chuff, closing her eyes and relishing in the feeling. Nothing could quite beat a good stretch. 

“Will we… Get to see Inkopolis soon, though?” 

Her eyes flickered open, the shorter of the duo turning to look at her Octarian house guest. 

“Uh. Y-Yeah, yeah absolutely! I’ll take ya to a bunch of places, we can even catch a bus and visit Arowana and stuff, getcha some new clothes. You’ll be the freshest Octoling in the plaza!” Three did not know shit about being fresh. Three was standing in her living room in nothing but star covered boxer shorts, a squid sisters tee that was Zapfish knows how old - the scratched off logo really added to the aesthetic - and some dull, grey, fuzzy looking socks with what appeared to be bunny faces near the end. Truly, she was a fashion icon.

Eight looked a little confused at Three’s words, maybe she didn’t know what Fresh ment? Three couldn’t tell. But what she did know was that she really needed out of this house and a place to think, if Callie and Marie were there she could let Eight chill with them for a bit and take a walk. The Inkling did value her alone time after all, and those loud thoughts, despite being pushed back were still there and nagging at her mind. 

Ducking out of the room, the Inkling told her to get some shoes on while she changed out of her pajamas, quickly heading down the hall and ditched her shirt. Guilt was running down her notochord as she pressed her back against the door. She didn't have time to dwell about stuff in here, she needed to get ready quickly. Hastily snatching her discarded hero gear from the floor she shoved it on without even thinking. Well, not until she went to grab her cape and found it missing from its place of honor. She had a little wall hook for the thing and everything and it was not there!!! What!! A ransack of her already messy room proved that she didn’t toss aside in a scatterbrained moment. She knew she didn’t have it last night when going to bed. Uhhh... Wait! Wasn't Eight wearing it? Exciting the room with a sigh, the door clicking shut behind her, she began to speak before she'd even come into view. “H-Hey uh, Eight have you seen my ca-” 

All of those bad thoughts had seemingly been put on pause at the sight of Eight zipping up those horrendous heels.

“W-Woah, woah. Eight. By putting shoes on I didn’t mean those things, t-take those off!” 

“But…” 

“Seriously, you’ll completely kill your feet by wearin’ those all time.” Unbeknown to the Agent, her tone had taken on a rather serious note as she walked past Eight to the door, using her own foot to push a pair of old turfing shoes towards her. It’s not like she really had time to put them in her room or anything. Eight took a moment to wonder if all inklings were this carefree about their clothes before donning them. She seemed to be surprised by how easy they fit, raising her heel slightly and turning back to look at them the best she could. 

“That’s gotta feel better, right?” 

“It’s. Weird… I’m not used to _not_ wearing heels. The Octarian Forces dress code made sure we wore boots with heels all the time.” 

“Is-Is it a bad weird?” 

“Kind of liberating, actually.” 

Three sighed roughly, feeling claustrophobic in here for reasons she couldn’t place a tentacle on. Social interaction was weird.

“Oh right you uh, you had my cape last, where’d ya put it?” 

“Folded it and left it over in the corner”, she spoke, still seemingly enamoured with her ‘new’ footwear, but she did point a finger over to the neatly folded cape with the note Three left for her still sitting on top.

Once the dusty old piece of cloth was buttoned around Three’s neck once more, she felt at least slightly more calmer. Her mind was still going on a mile a minute, but at least it was nice to have the cape back. The weight of it was soothing in a way. 

“Alright. Let’s jet.” That sounded far more cooler in her head.

 

* * *

The walk to the manhole was quick, what with Three pretty much power walking to give her cape the proper amount of flutter. Inkopolis was more or less deserted as it was fairly early. If Three wasn’t so dead set on getting to the Canyon, she would’ve noticed Eight’s reaction towards the few Octolings wandering around the plaza, some even chatting with some early bird Inklings. 

A weighted _clunk_ echoed as her shoes hit the metal grating of the manhole, turning around to make sure Eight was still following. Part of her did feel slightly bad for walking so quickly through what was a completely new place for her Octoling companion (calling her a friend was far too much of a stretch) but she seemed to be navigating just fine to Three’s relief. It was one less thing to be anxious about. 

The two shifted through the grate, taking a few moments to navigate and pop up at the other side. Three took a deep breath, the soft mountain breeze tousling her long tentacles. The air was so clear up here, nothing like the smogged Inkopolis. The valley used to be the same, but that was somewhat of a train journey back to Inkopolis Plaza just to go visit an abandoned and somewhat radioactive site just for some memories. 

“Oh no! Gramps was right about Three coming back to try and do more agent work!” A voice that could only be known as Callie’s turned the pairs attention over to the shack. 

“W-We gotta stop them!” A finger was pointed directly at Three, causing her ear to twitch, a complete look of confusion on her face. Both the Inkling and Octoling turned to look at each other in confusion before back at the group. 

“C’mon, we need to make sure they dont’ take a single step further!” Callie stood, before charging directly at Three. For being an Agent, her reflexes weren’t the sharpest at times, a strangled yelp left her beak as she was tackled to the floor as a cloud of dust was kicked up as both of the collapsed on the ground. 

It took a moment for Callie to realise that no one had in fact followed suit with her to tackle Three to the ground, sitting on top of the Agent she turned her head to glance at Agent 4 and Marie who were both sitting and standing idly. 

“Man, you guys make terrible agents. None of you charged with me!” 

“Because I’m pretty sure Three would’ve stopped if we just asked her, Cal.” 

“I’ve seen her run! She can go like- fast!” 

“Last time I saw her run away from anything it was a seagull who wanted to eat her calamari fries and even then she tripped on her own tentacles and landed face first on the-” 

“ **HEY.** ” 

Three, who was still forced against the ground due to Callie more or less sitting on top of her, was now squirming in an effort to get free. 

“C-Callie, do me a favour and _move_ ”, she huffed, voice muffled by the fact she was laying face down in the dirt. 

Her struggles were momentarily put on pause as she heard a soft laugh to the right of her. Soft enough that a harsh teal rose to coat her face and ears. That had to be Eight, she’d never heard such a soft laugh in her life. Now was not the time for glowflies to be fluttering.

Three squirmed enough to convince Callie to get off of her. The look she sent to the idol made her chuckle nervously, even though she had a thin layer of dirt on one side of her face Three could still give a pretty mean stare.

“Gramps told us you might come by and start workin’ again! I was worried! You’re on vacation after all.” 

“Yeah. I know. I’m not here to work, I was wondering if I could, uh, leave Eight with you guys for a bit?” 

Three swallowed thickly, feeling a certain pair of Octarian eyes on her as she kept her view strictly set to the other squids. 

“Oh, yeah sure!!! We’d love to have her, wouldn’t we, Four?” Callie, who’d returned to sitting down next to Four, clapped her hands together excitedly. The shorter Agent gave a nod, much more engrossed in their newest fidget toy to pay the other cephalopods much mind. 

Three’s eyes flickered over to Marie, who was the only one to look outright bothered by it. Her demeanor was cold enough to send a shudder down the back of her neck. 

“But why- you’re not going into one of the kettles, are you?” She squinted, causing Three to sigh.

“No. I’m not just going to leave her at my apartment and I don’t know the uh- girls who helped us get her home yesterday. I don’t know their names or where they live so I figured here would be the next best place. I’m not going far and I pinkie swear I’m not going into one of the kettles.” 

“Oh, you mean Pearl and Marina? Yeah, from what I heard they’re busy with the news and new concert stuff right now! Didn’t they just release a new single?” Glancing over to Marie, her cousin didn’t exactly get the most warm of responses. 

“Yeah. It sounded fine.” 

Huffing softly, Callie turned back to Three with a smile. “Aaalrightie, but only if you promise you won’t go into the kettles.” 

“Yeah. I promise.” It was a bold move to flash a glance over to Eight before heading off into the Canyon with hunched shoulders. She liked to think her cape flicking behind her was dramatic enough of an exit to make up for her general awkwardness. 

The left behind Octoling stood quietly, watching as the Agent disappeared into the fog that laced the area. Had she done something wrong? Why was Three ditching her like this randomly? Her ears flopped downwards as she looked back over to what were essentially her babysitters. Callie and Four had shifted apart, leaving a gap for her to sit in, which she gave the two a thank you nod for and settled down between them, gaze cast to the floor.

“So Eight, Has Three shown you anything in Inkopolis yet?” 

 

* * *

Kicking stuff surely didn’t exactly fix the situation, but Three couldn’t lie it at least made her feel a little better watching a pebble careen off of the side of the floating platform and into the abyss below. Nothing about this whole situation felt right. Why did Cuttlefish have to assign an Octoling to live with her? He _knew_ how she felt about Octolings, so why on earth was he so intent on making sure it was her Eight stayed with? She let out a groan of frustration - another pebble lost to Three’s aggressive kicks. 

Everything about this was stupid. This could never work. Eight couldn’t just sleep on her couch forever, that was ridiculous. Three let her shoulders sink. That wasn’t the real issue, and she knew that. The guilt manifesting inside of her was becoming a hard pill to swallow. Was everything Cuttlefish told her a lie? She had no issue with Eight staying with her, none at all really, she was never the most social of squids but she couldn’t deny, the others company this morning was genuinely nice till her mind started to wander. 

Three pebbles and counting now. Did Eight hold anything against her? She couldn’t blame the Octoling for any resentment she might hold. How long had it been since she’d really thought about this whole Agent ordeal? How many innocent Octolings did it take for her to forget why she was even doing this? Her stomach twisted at that thought. 

What had even happened yesterday? Being passed out for the better half of it didn’t exactly help sewing together what memories she had of the whole experience. How had Eight saved the world, no one had even told her the specifics! And honestly right about now she was _very_ god damn curious to know how?! Most of her time down there was navigating dark hallways and avoiding weird blue looking Octarians but even that didn’t make sense to her, why were they blue? Who suddenly decided that a species she’d only know as red for the longest goddamn time had a right to turn them _BLUE._ And their eyes! Eyes should not look like on anything ever! What she went through wasn’t exactly anything to write home about, she’d been on dangerous-er missions (was that even a word?), so what on fucking earth had Eight been through to get her back fucked up like that? When was the first time she even saw Eight that day? The Blender? No. No it was when Cuttlefish told her to get that stray Octoling. Why did she follow his orders without even thinking anymore? What was the deal with-

**“AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”**

Not even the gulls resting on the tentacle shaped rocks could be prepared for such a loud screech, all of them scattering with upset cries from the sudden shout. In the sudden blind rage Three had throw herself into, she kicked the closest thing to her, which in turn didn’t seem to want to budge and just caused her to yelp in sudden pain and clasp her foot. About to spit some curse words down at whatever the fuck she’d just try to kick before a voice shattered all of her thoughts into insignificant pieces. 

“Squee-G’s are made from a pretty indestructible metal, y’know.” 

 

* * *

“No, she uh. We haven’t really had time to see Inkopolis yet, though she said she’d take me there to get me some new clothes eventually.” 

“Oh, that’s so cool! I see you already got some new clothes already though.” Callie gave a nod towards the newbie turfing gear she was currently donning. Eight looked between the two sitting either side of her, not quite sure what to make of the looks being sent at her new attire. 

“Woah… That’s a really old set of turfing gear”, Four piped up softly, “where’d you get that?” 

“Oh uh, Three gave it to me when we got to her apartment. It’s kinda big on me, but I like it.” 

She never really got to tell Three a proper thank you for that, nor did she really get to thank her for the bandages either. Or the blankets. Not to mention the whole blender thing too. She’d get to that, whenever she decided to come back. 

“It’s cool to see such a classic set of gear, though its missing the headband, but it isn’t really look all that fresh.” Callie added, giving a slight shrug.

Marie huffed behind her cousin, rolling her eyes at the group and turning away with her umbrella up. 

“Fresh?” Now seemed like a better time than any to ask. “I heard Three use that word earlier, but I wasn’t really all that sure what it meant.” 

The look of almost shock practically rippled through the squids that were interested. It was all Eight could do to not look away, even if one hand went to twirl her tentacles in a nervous twitch. Inkling lingo was weird and she was an amnesiac octoling, how was she supposed to know what any of it meant? Callie suddenly chuckling didn’t exactly help matters. 

“Fresh is a pretty big thing here! To be fresh is like, every Inklings dream! I guess now every Octoling too… I heard they were coming up to the surface which the coolest thing ever! Isn’t that right, Four?” 

“I s-saw a few in the plaza this morning, everyone looked really happy” ,she gave a quick nod with bright smile. 

“But yeah, Fresh basically means the coolest of the cool, best of the best, one who wins all the turf war battles and has the coolest clothes! Me and Marie were considered pretty fresh back in the day when we used to turf, though I was definitely the fresher of the two of us, right Marie?” she leant backwards directly into her cousin, but only got a shrug in response. 

“I guess so. You’re still terrible with a roller though”, she murmured under her breath. 

“It’s… Really nice to see other Octolings on the surface actually. I’m glad I’m not the only one.” Eight ended up toying with the ends of her tentacles once more, trying to be a little more talkative to the group. 

“I think it’s really cool to see more Octolings! They have a really interesting take on fashion ‘n stuff! I think the phone company who makes these-” Four fumbled around for a moment before tugging a squid shaped phone from their pocket. “-are making Octopus shaped ones too!” 

Eight gave the device a quick squint, the word phone made her shudder slightly, but this looked nothing like the insane device she fought a day prior. 

“Yeah! So are you settling in with Three okay? I know it's only been like… Not even a day, but I’m kinda curious.” Callie’s questioned seemed to garner her not quite sister attention if her shifting umbrella was any indication. Or maybe she was just shooing a bug away, who knew. 

“Oh! We… We’re getting along? I think? Three gave me these clothes and a place to sleep and food so I guess that means it's going ok? She seems pretty cool. I’m looking forward to getting to know her more”, Eight answered with a shrug.

“Marie always told me about Three, she always said that she had like mega-bad personal hygiene or something!”

“F-Four!” That umbrella of her was more emotive than the squid herself, given that it was just shy of dropping on the ground. 

“Well, I can’t exactly deny that it's… Not true”, Eight piped in, giggles emerging from the whole group. The Octoling couldn’t help but smile. _Was this how friends happened?_. 

“If you can, please get her to try and take a shower or something. Please.” Marie jokingly rolled her eyes, offering a much more warmer stance. It left the new recruit feeling a lot more relaxed, tension leaving her shoulders as she let them slump slightly.

“I’ll certainly try! Or at least try to clean that cape of her’s.” 

“Oh god, the cape, she started wearing that like a year after we recruited her, refused to go anywhere without it. I don’t think I’ve seen that thing get cleaned since she made it-”

**“AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”**

The sudden scream and the departure of most gulls in the area made all four cephalopods jump, all glaning between each other wordlessly. That was till Eight broke the silence. 

“That was Three right? I should. Probably go check on her, make sure she didn’t… Fall off of the cliffside or something” ,she stood while brushing one of the tentacles from her face. Not that it did much good as it fell straight back into place as soon as she started speed walking.. It was a stupid attempt to even try and deny her concern for the other. 

It didn’t take long for the Octoling to find her, holding her foot and whimpering. Did she seriously try to kick a Squee-G? 

“Squee-G’s are made from a pretty indestructible metal, y’know.” Eight called out to her, causing Three to jolt and spin around. 

“E-Eight! I thought you were with the others…” 

“I heard you scream and then about a thousand birds took off. I honestly thought you fell off of the platform and I got worried.” Usually one to avoid direct eye contact, Eight wasn’t shying away from it this time. Staring Three directly down, right into her pretty blue eyes. Wait, pretty? Forget about that, she had concern to dish out. She was kind of miffed that Three had just ditched her back there, granted it wasn’t for long and technically it was none of her business why Three wanted to be out here but still! She could be petty if she wanted! She saved the world! Her arms were folded as she raised a brow. 

“I’m not that stupid.” Three scoffed, folding her arms right back. 

“You tried to kick a custom 6755-UT Squee-G.” 

“I don’t know Octarian tech!” 

“You know if that was an updated model it probably could’ve turned hostile and tried to take your leg off.” 

“... Y-You’re kidding.” 

“Yeah.” 

This time Eight couldn’t stop the prominent smirk on her features as she stepped closer to Three, kneeling down to look at the device. 

“Man, the poor little guys taken quite the beating”, she murmured. Three would’ve responded with a question about what could’ve caused this had she understood even a lick of Octarian, but the bubbling language that left her new roommates mouth just left her more confused. 

“D-Don’t just lie about stuff like that, Eight! I nearly lost my ear once, I would rather not lose my leg to a _vacuum cleaner. _”__

“But it’s sort of funny to see you so flustered like that.” 

Several upset noises, mostly half formed denials, left Three’s mouth as she tried to find the right words. When nothing intelligible came out she huffed and turned to glare at the sky. Feelings were weird and confusing, with words even more so. Her internal ranting was cut short when Eight started to hum thoughtfully. 

“What?” 

“I could fix this lil’ guy up, y’know.” 

The Squee-G in question was smashed, sliced down the middle, bolts and weird looking motherboards spilling out onto the ground. The squid was pretty sure she saw a spider’s nest in there. The Octarian looked up to the Inkling with a tilted head.

“Can we take him back?”

“There’s no way I’m taking that thing back to my apartment.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight finds out that food is literally the best thing about topside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah We finally got this finished!! Sorry for the long wait time, as writers and editors were both super lazy and get distracted by a lot of things but thank you for patience and what not! We have a lot planned for this fic, the issue is finding the time to write it all down but we hope you enjoy it! <3 thank you for all your kind words so far.

_‘Damnit. Why’d I say yes. She looked so crestfallen when I said that we weren’t taking it home, how could I say no to her! She’s a guest and if she wants the dumb vacuum cleaner she can have it! Though if eats my carpet it’s gonna be put in a box or… Something? Maybe one of those like… Pens people keep sea slugs in when they’re being bad? Do I even own one of those things?’_

...

_‘You’re really bad at saying no to people, aren’t you, Three?’_

_‘Shut up, Three.’_

Much to the Agent’s displeasure, here she was returning to the shack with a smiling (or was that smirking?) Octoling by her side. The broken Squee-G in her arms was being cradled as if it was some kind of hatchling. Three would’ve honestly just tossed the parts into her pockets without even thinking. 

“Three! You didn’t fall off of the platform!” Callie’s chipper tone brought Three’s attention to her first as the duo stopped. 

“Well. Duh? You guys really think I’d be stupid enough to _fall off_?” 

“Mhm.”

“Yeah!” 

Even though she didn’t voice it, Four did nod their head, head turned away and clearly trying to keep a laugh down judging by their scrunched face. 

“Wow, I feel so loved. Thanks guys.” She rolled her eyes, sarcasm all but dripping from her voice. 

Callie’s small giggle at the reaction trailed off as she looked between the two, spotting the broken pile of bolts in Eight’s arms.

“Oh! Where’d ya get that Squee-G?” 

“I found it out in the Canyon, Eight wants to take it home and try and fix it.”

“Oh so like… a pet?” She gasped. “Marie!!” 

Said Sister’s arm was grabbed and shaken slightly, umbrella rustling as it hit the top of the shack from such movements. “Can we get a pet Squee-G?” 

“No. We already have Judd, and he’s pretty much a Squee-G anyways, with how much he eats off the floor.” 

A whine came from the other, her ears drooping slightly. Marie was no fun sometimes… 

“But uh, we’re probably gonna head out- or well. Back to the apartment ‘n stuff.” Three shrugged, pointing a finger back towards the manhole. 

“That quickly?” Callie looked a little disheartened knowing this, pouting slightly. She would’ve liked to have spent a little more time with Eight! After Octavio kidnapped her, she’d found an odd connection with a lot of the soldiers there. She had no idea Octolings could be so wonderful and charming. A large part of her wanted to know more, so she really did hope she would at least get to see Eight again soon.

“Three.” Marie spoke up softly, raising her umbrella, she looked as dignified as ever. By that Three meant that she looked like she was trying too hard. Her half lidded gaze looking over the pair gave the Agent the heebie jeebies. “If you want somewhere to scream, you know you can do that at your apartment right? It’s peaceful here and I wouldn’t be surprised if the gulls are planning some kind of revenge plot towards you for scaring them off of their favourite rock perch.” 

A huff left her nose as she gave Marie an unamused look. _Shit, Okay, she’s onto you. Act calm. Act cool. Don’t make a fool of yourself in front of Eight._ “Actually, Marie,”, _no wait don’t open your beak,_ “I _did_ come specifically here to scream and the seagulls and I are on mutual terms thanks to that one time I gave them some of my fries.” More like she ran away screaming after being swarmed. 

Stopping mid sentence and looking as if she was struggling to solve a particular math problem, it clicked exactly what she’d just said when Marie’s usual stoic expression turned into a snarky grin.

“You… _gave_ them some of your fries? I don’t remember it going like that.” 

“A-And besides we’re super busy so me and Eight are leaving, thanks for watching her and all but we got stuff to do, places to see.” More or less manhandling Eight towards the grate while at the same time managing to keep down that embarrassed flush till the second she turned away was a hard task. She managed anyways. The three cephalopods behind managed to work in quick goodbyes. Eight managed to get in a quick wave before they both disappeared without another word. 

Once back in now slightly more awake but still pretty deserted Inkopolis, Three had to take a moment. She placed a hand on the wall of Sheldon’s shop and lowered her head, long tentacles touching the floor as she took several deep inhales. Social interactions _sucked!_

“Agent Three? Are you okay?” 

 

“Uh.” How was one supposed to explain that social interaction and not knowing how to form an actual sentence was the reason the Inkling was so out of breath and flustered. “Y-yeah. I’m fine. The dust in th-the canyon can get a bit much sometimes.” She lied, raising her head back up. 

“So… Back to the apartment?” 

If it wasn’t made obvious by how Eight was glancing around at her surroundings curiously, the Octoling clearly wanted to see more of the city. Too bad it was nigh impossible to that with an arm full of broken Squee-G. She gave a quick nod in response, stepping back to allow Three to take the lead. If the Octoling was honest, she’d already forgotten the way back to the apartment. 

This time, Three was slower, making sure not to storm off and leave Eight to catch up. Every now and then she glanced back to make sure her eight limbed acquaintance was still there. The taller of the two definitely appreciated the slower walk back as it gave her a chance to glance all around. Even though the square was still pretty empty, it was amazing to see such towering buildings, to smell so many different scents. Eight immediately decided that she liked the square. She was doing pretty well in terms of keeping up with Three and balancing her managing her own mini sightseeing tour was cut short with something caught her eye. 

The Inkling also came to a halt several feet ahead, slowly backtracking to see what had caused the standstill. More or less beside her now, she followed the Octarian’s gaze. An Inkling holding an icecream cone with a comical amount of scoops stacked atop was what seemed to be the target. 

“Oh you want some ice cream?” 

“What? Oh. No. I was looking at that over there.” Shifting the Squee-G to be held in one arm, she pointed a clawed finger at a patch of flowers and weeds sprouting up from the cracks in the pavement. 

“Well, it’s not like you can’t go over there. We got all the time in the world.” Her hands slowly went to disappear into her pockets, quietly following the Octoling over without a word. Eager to make up for the social blunder that was meeting the other agents, she shifted into the ‘classic cool loner’ pose. Posture relaxed, arms crossed behind her head and oh so casually keeping her eyes glued to her new houseguest. 

Two blue flowers stuck out of the ground surrounded by rough tufts of grass. Given that it was literally a bunch of scraggly weeds, Three never really paid any attention to them but it seemed Eight really liked the look of them. Maybe Octarians didn’t have flowers out in the Valley? Surely there had to be some form of greenery over there, even if it was just algae or weeds. That was where Eight was from right?

“So Octo’s don’t... You know what flowers are, right?” 

A clawed hand shifted to drift in a dainty manor over the petals, as if they were touching something easily breakable. If Three could find the right words, she’d agree that it looked very picturesque. Let’s be real like Three even really knew what that word meant. The words her brain was tossing at her was more along the lines of:

_pretty octo eight flower good pretty_

I mean, just look at that face! With both of her eyes lidded and one eyebrow raised while the other was flattened. She looked unimpressed. Oh.

“Oh nonono, I didn’t mean it like you were dumb or anything!!” Three reeled back slightly, holding her hands up. Fuck. Why did she even say that?

“It’s just… Y’know.” _Three don’t say it._ “That uh. Octolings. They’re known to,” _Shut your beak, Three. Close it. Zip it._ “I’ve just known them to be like.” _Three. She’s right there, don’t say it._ “Savages, haha, y’know?” 

__

Might as well set herself on fire while she was at it. The Agent was clutching her arm, her eyes wide. She didn’t think Eight’s expression could get any less impressed, but with both of her eyebrows now raised, she realised pretty quickly how wrong she was. Wordlessly, Eight stood and Three felt her stomach dropping. Even without those heels, she was still so tall. A not so small part of her felt a prick of jealousy. She’d always been the shortest out of her friends and family, who gave Eight the right to be that tall? And pretty. And pretty angry. 

Her hands were clasping each other again, gaze drawn to the ground. 

“D-Do you maybe want some ice cream?” Three blurted out, the stuffy silence getting under her skin faster than her own foot in mouth moment. 

“... Ice cream?” She knew Three mentioned that before, but in all honesty the Octoling had no idea what it really was. Granted, she did know what ice was thank you very much. The thing that was called cream, however, was an utter mystery. 

“Here, uh, lemme show you.” She began to walk backwards, making sure Eight was following as they headed towards the truck. There was a slight line, but nothing drastic. Three had seen lines for Ice Cream go entire blocks wide before. There was only six or so people ahead of the two, so this wouldn’t take too long.

“I don’t really know what flavour you want, but you pick whatever and I’ll get it, okay?” 

When she only got a nod in return, the guilt came rushing back full force. Damnit! Sighing softly, her hands went back to her pockets. Feeling her fingers brush against her wallet- oh thank the Old Ones she always left that thing in there- she was pretty sure this vendor didn’t know who she was. Or care about a ‘put it on my tab’ kind of response.

“I don’t… Remember much from the domes.”

Eight’s voice dragged Three out of her thoughts, causing the Agent turning to look up at her.

“But I remember all of the flowers there were dead and until now I’d never seen ‘em alive. They were always so wilted and this gross grey-ish brown… Wasn’t all that appealing, really.” 

“Yeah, I can imagine.” She could do more than imagine. Come to think of it, there hadn’t even been mold or lichen growing on those barren rocks. Unwillingly, her mind drifted back to the time that she thought owning house plants was a good idea when actively working for the agency. Eurgh.

“I didn’t really remember anything else from down there.” 

Two people were remaining in front of the pair as Eight continued on.

“Not until today, s’been kind of hard to remember anything that wasn’t trying to make sure a giant ball wasn’t about to go careening off the side of a ledge.” Three’s bewildered expression must’ve been something for her to wheeze in restrained laughter. 

“But thanks, it feels nice to remember things.” Granted, it wasn’t the best memory, but it was _something._

The amount of questions the now silent Inkling had swirling in her head was quite a bit more than she expected from just a simple, quick conversation. She hadn’t even realised that they’d reached the front of the line. 

“Ma’am?” 

The vendors voice caused her head to tilt up. She was barely tall enough for her head to pass the window of the van. 

“Oh uh. Hey.” tugging her wallet out of her jacket, her eyes flickered to the flavours plastered on the board beside. 

The usual pick for the Inkling would be Mint Choc Chip with hot fudge drizzled over the top. Now the color turquoise made her stomach feel just ever so slightly uneasy after recent events and what not so she decided MCC was off the menu for now. 

“Uh, can I get a Chocolate Fudge with Honey drizzled over the top and-” The look the vendor flashed her made whatever she was saying dribble off into a weird garbled mess. “J-just. A double scoop of Chocolate Fudge please… W-With whipped cream.” 

 

Attention now set on the other, she could see Eight was browsing all of the different flavours- granted she had no fucking clue what most of these words meant and was going off of color alone. She could feel Three looking at her. Old Ones above and below, why was there so many? How was she supposed to pick?

“This one?” she quickly pointed at one that kept catching her eye. It looked colorful enough. She glanced down at Three with a nervous head tilt. Was that a good choice?

“And one Rainbow Sherbet, thanks.” 

Three and the cashier exchanged items with all hurried awkwardness of trying to end a social interaction. While taking their leave, the agent took a gander of Eight fumbling around with the mess of bolts and metal compartments in her arms. It was kind of funny in a slapstick sort of way. And then her consciousness kicked in. Oh, right, she should help with that. But what to do with both hands full of ice cream?

She managed to snag one of the metal tables laying around the Square, most were empty during the morning anyways. A few early bird Ink- and Octolings were milling about, some reading books, others feeding the sparrows. One was getting attacked by seagulls, but that’s just how those mafia birds worked. Once seated, Eight placed the Squee-G down, making sure nothing fell onto the ground before moving her arms away and sighing in relief. Carrying that thing was becoming an extremely annoying burden. At least she had whatever this ice cream was now, evident by how Three was holding it out to her. 

The Octoling took a moment to notice how Three was eating hers. She was doing nothing but running her tongue up the two scoops before taking a soft bite into the top. A small flush crossing her features and a smile soon joining, even her ears had perked up! This was unfair, that had no right to be that cute. The ice cream. She meant that.

Regardless, the expression it garnered seemed to have her curious. A bowl of cereal wasn’t exactly enough to sate a more than kind of hungry Octarian, nor was a simple two scoop cone of ice cream but it was better than nothing. A quick sweep of the tongue had the whole thing swallowed in under a second, cone and everything. Eight’s ears perked at the taste as she licked her lips. Holy _shit_ that was good. 

The pleasantly surprised expression that she donned was the polar opposite to the confused look on Three’s face. By the way she ate cereal, the Agent wasn’t sure why she was so stunned but she just ate that entire thing in one bite! _How?!_ That drywall eating concern was coming back to sweep through Three’s ever-loud thoughts as she tried to finish her ice cream in peace. 

_Well. If anything it was slightly impressive._

“Good?” Was the only thing she could possibly think to ask, taking another lick. 

“Mhm!” Well, one thing was for certain. Three had yet to see the Octoling so exuberant. Rounded ears perked straight up and a much more noticeable smile on those tanned features. Bright orange eyes seeming more lively than ever. She made a quick mental note to buy more ice cream in the future. 

Alas, that smile of hers didn’t seem to keep the same upbeat atmosphere for long. Her oblong pupils turned to thin slits (if that was even possible, they were pretty thin to begin with) as her left ear twitched rapidly. A wince followed suite as she raised her hands to pressed down on her head and moving to more or less slam it down on the metal table, causing Three to jolt. 

“E-Eight?... You alright?” 

“... My head.” Was the only response she got from the other, tentacles now lounging across the table, the tips wiggling in an erratic manor every few seconds or so. Another low whine escaped her, arms falling lifeless downwards instead of grasping her head like before. She was honestly starting to wonder if the vendor- or Old Ones forbid, Three- had poisoned her food or something because this was _painful!_

“Oh, you got brain freeze?” 

Eight turned her head, resting her cheek on the table while she lazily looked at the other across, her eyes half lidded as she tried to take in what was being said past the cold awful pain. “What?” 

“Brain freeze. It’s when, uh.” She took another lick of her own ice cream, even as she felt a pang of pity for the Octopus in front of her. The look in the other cephalopods eyes made Three a little overprotective of her own cold treat. “S’when ya eat somfin’ too cold and ya mouf’ don’t like it.” Talking through a mouthful of food didn’t sound too great on her. 

Something about that sounded fishy, but right now Eight’s brain was a frosty winter hellscape and that didn’t exactly put her in the place to figure out if Three was joking or not. Nah. Three couldn’t joke that good.

Since the Inkling was more or less eating her ice cream at snail pace (probably to avoid that ‘brain freeze’ nonsense) Eight decided to take a quick glance around to see what she could. She didn’t exactly remember much from underground, but she was pretty sure that there had been rumors about what the topside was like. The real thing outdid whatever fantasies they conjured. Her eyes followed a small group of gulls flying overhead, passing over the tower, to which then she stopped to get a good look at the giant catfish coiled around the large structure. It was a bit of a challenge to tell if he was looking at her or not, or anything at all really. She momentarily wondered what that tower was for anyways. A lot of Inklings and even Octolings seemed to be milling around the base of it, weapons strapped to their backs as they entered or chatted near the entrance. 

She hoped for their sake it wasn’t some kind of test.  
“Ya ready to go?” 

So lost in her own thoughts about this giant city, she hadn’t even noticed that Three was done and already out of her chair. Scrambling slightly to gather all of the Squee-G parts, she stood quickly and gave a nod. Three turned with a _swoosh_ of her cape, starting to take slow steps once again. 

“Hey, Three?” 

She’d barely taken a single step before being stopped. “Yeah?” 

“... I really like those flowers, is there anyway we can take them back to the house?” 

Following Eight’s gaze, Three bit her lip. 

“There uh. Well. Wild flowers don’t really… You can’t really keep them in your own house, the second you pluck them they aren’t destined to last all that long. So I don’t think we can. Sorry.” 

_Fuck!_ Something about seeing the vaguely disappointed look on the tallers face caught all three of the agent’s hearts in a very tight bind. “But!” 

Those amber eyes flickered over to her, blue meeting that beautiful color once more as Three struggled to spit the words out. 

“Just. Follow me.” 

It was decided actions were going to be taken over words this time around. The agent stood still for a few seconds as she tried to remember specific directions. Getting lost in Inkopolis wasn’t on her to do list today, especially after the world-saving fiasco from yesterday. The walk was mostly silent, with Three glancing over her shoulder to make sure Eight hadn’t gotten lost on their journey to the unknown. 

This might’ve been somewhat of a stupid idea in reality, all she wanted was a damn flower, which could’ve just been replicated by buying a fake one and having it at home but noooo, Three’s stupid lesbian instincts had to take over and she had to go all out. 

And by go all out that meant taking her to an actual plant shop.

Said shop became a regular thing the Inkling often passed when rushing to catch a train to the good ole plaza before that place fell out of interest to hip and fresh Inklings. Granted she never really stopped to CHECK if it was a plant shop but it was like, green and stuff. Green meant it had plants right? The giant neon cactus sign might also point towards it selling something to do with flora. 

Three peered inside, only to have her face be brushed by a rather large leaf. Taking a moment to push it aside and properly step in, she glanced around. She could only see one or two sea creatures in here admiring the things for sale. How on earth these sea creatures weren’t literally drowning in sweat was beyond her. Only a few seconds in here and her were starting to become gross and drippy. Hunching her shoulders, she shoved her mouth into the collar part of the jacket in a sulk. The heat never did agree with her. Summer in Inkopolis was a death sentence unless a fan wasn’t stuck on her at all times and the AC was turned up to max. Even then it was just _barely_ tolerable. Her insistence on wearing long sleeves obvious had nothing to do with it.

She heard her name called, ear twitching as it dripped ink.

“So… What is this place exactly?” 

“You wanted the flowers, and we can’t take those home but uh.” She gestured around the entire shop. “Pick anything you want and it’s yours, plants take like a lot of care but if you want one I’ll get it.” 

The Octoling’s head immediately perked to start looking around with a swing in her step. The heat didn’t seem to bother her as much. Eight’s dark skin, dappled with freckles, (were those freckles? Three couldn't tell) against the soft green hues and vibrant colors of flowers blooming from every which way was quite the site to behold. Now added to the dripping Inkling’s appearance was a very prominent blush, head permanently tucked into the collar as she trailed behind. It was anybody’s guess if she was sweating more from awkwardness or the heat.

Eight, meanwhile, had never seen something that her captivated her quite like this. It was a totally different atmosphere from the city. How weird to think just outside that door was the bustling with liveliness but behind closed doors something as quiet and pretty could exist all in the same space! Her clawed hands gently touched each leaf it passed by. There was quite a lot of touching going on as it there was plants from the ceilings to the walls. Each shelf had vines that neatly coiled around each pot, while others hung down from the ceiling so much that they’d be at Three’s level when walked under. So many different shades, it was like picking ice cream all over again! 

Three, on the other hand, felt like she was literally standing directly beside the sun. It felt like they’d been in here an hour when in reality it had most likely been like five minutes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was vaguely worried about passing out. It was cut short as she heard her name be called. 

“Hey Three, look. It’s you.” 

Well, now Three was just sweaty and frustrated. 

In the Octarian’s left hand was a potted cactus. An extremely small, squat one at that. Unsure if it was just the humidity getting to her or not but Three swore that Eight was smirking. “I-Is that the one you want?” 

“Hmn… No, I think I’ll keep looking.” 

Biting her tongue and resisting the urge to groan out loud, she followed the other without another complaint until finally Eight made a decision. Bamboo, complete with a lucky red ribbon. A rather large bamboo plant. Granted it wasn’t taller than Three but could easily get bigger with the correct care. Three almost wanted to say no to buying something that could get that big, but the excited look on Eight’s face and the promise of getting any plant she wanted in here kept her rooted to her words. Curse her weak lesbian heart.

Tossing the cashier the money, who appeared to be an old Julimes Pupfish donning a pair of reading glasses, it suddenly dawned on Three that she’d have to be the one to lug this thing home. At least it was cooler outside than inside this literal greenhouse.

Such a long trek home, complete with having to tug a rather large plant carefully up the stairs, wasn’t exactly something she had on her to do list today. Being the stubborn idiot she was, she refused to accept help from Eight or anyone else on the stairwell. Once the two were finally inside, she did nothing but collapse on her sofa. Eight, the broken Squee-G and the plant could judge her all they want but she was _done._ For at least fifteen minutes.

Nothing could deter her from shoving her face into the couch cushions. She wasn’t even in a comfortable position either! Her legs were strung awkwardly over the armrest and the cape was flopped usessly to the side. Even it’s fluttering from the AC was lackluster. It took a few minutes but the Inkling finally turned her head to look at the sound of tinkering. The fear for her kitchen equipment had something to do with it. Thankfully, it was just Eight sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce on the floor with all the Squee-G’s parts laid out on the floor in perfect order while the sliced little pest laid to the side. 

Lazily, she followed the Octoling’s motions, watching her hold a hand to her chin in thought. The silence was pretty golden right now, the only thing Three could really hear was the sound of windchimes and children playing outside the open window of the apartment. It was nice. 

“Hey, Three?” 

“Mm?” 

“Do you have uh…” Eight clicked her tongue. Cuttlefish had taught her the basics of Inkling down in the metro, the language being so simple she’d picked it up faster than the elder could’ve ever imagined, but some words still escaped her. “The…” 

She began to make a twisting motion with her hand clenched. “Y’know what they use to unscrew stuff?” 

“Screwdriver?” 

“Yeah. Yeah that, do you have one of those?” 

“Yup, lemme just-” With an odd warbled noise, she pushed herself up onto her feet. It was an effort to drag herself over to the kitchen and beginning to route through the drawers. 

Turned out, she had several for whatever reason. The Octarian didn’t even glance up from her work when she placed them in arm’s reach, but thanked the other regardless. Task done, Three flopped back down onto the sofa in a slightly less suffocating position. She could fall asleep here if she really wanted. The peace and quiet was perfect.

_Bu-ing!_

And this morning had actually been rather pleasant. A lone cephalopod like her had never been one to appreciate company. Not until this morning that is. It was a new feeling, but certainly not an unwelcome one.

_Bu-ing!_

Food for later tonight was another thought that popped into her head. She’d have to ask Eight what she was interested in food wise. Maybe something home cooked would be a good way to introduce her to an actual meal. Since all they had was just cereal and ice cream today. In Three’s opinion that wasn’t a TERRIBLE meal and- 

_Bu-ing!_

Okay that noise was becoming less and less bearable by the second. 

Rolling onto her side, her entire expression switched from sluggish and tired to confused and curious at the sight of Eight holding a CQ-80 Device.

“Hey, where’d ya get that?” 

“Oh, the CQ device? I’ve had it since we landed.“ The device beeped once more. Eight switched the display screen on with ease.

“What are you doing with it? It’s not gonna like, do anything to the wifi is it?” 

“I’m talking to Pearl and Marina.” 

_Ooooh._

It dawned on Three that maybe, just maybe. Eight needed an actual phone. Three wasn’t going to be her tour guide forever, she didn’t want that and she was also sure Eight wouldn’t be too fond of it either. She’d have to look into that tomorrow. 

Time ticked on as Eight worked with just a simple screwdriver and her claws. The silence was interrupted by Three lazily turning on the TV by slapping her tentacle down on the remote, which was halfway across the floor, to drag it over to her. The two somehow worked in harmony despite doing two completely different tasks. The beeping of Eight’s CQ device no longer bothering Three as she drowned herself in lifeless mid-day TV shows and re-runs of turfing finals. Nothing disturbed the duo. Nothing except the sudden growl from both of their stomachs.

The two looking up and catching each others eyes. Both quietly chuckled at each other for a few seconds before Three stood to stretch, totally not admiring how pretty Eight’s sadly short but still noticeably cute laugh. 

“Okay, sooo… Food?” 

She glanced over to the kitchen with some disappointment. That home cooked meal idea slowly getting less and less enticing. The Inkling had little idea of how to cook in general. The last time she tried to cook anything it was a poptart that she forgot about and nearly started a house fire from leaving it in the toaster too long. Maybe cooking should be saved for when she replaced that fire extinguisher. That quick glance over to the kitchen did leave her gaze set on the fridge. Heaving herself up once more, Three brought herself over to the tiny list pinned to the fridge by a dusty starfish shaped magnet. 

Pizza? Not yet. She didn’t want to blow Eight’s tastebuds clean off with something that unquestionably good just yet. Maybe burritos? The thought of Eight trying to gulp one of those down whole like a snake was already making her stomach churn. Oh! That was perfect. 

“Hey Eight, ya ever had noodles before?”

“Uh.” The Octoling glanced over her shoulder. “No?” 

That was kind of an obvious answer. Three should’ve known. 

“Well, prepare to taste some prime surface food because we’re getting noodles.” 

The unimpressed expression she got from Eight while tugging her phone out of her pocket did not help matters.

“That literally just sounds like you combined the words nude and dull.”

“Don’t ruin noodles like this, Eight” 

A half an hour later and the two were seated comfortably on the couch. It took a bit to wrangle Eight away from her work she was so focused. The scent of noodles did the trick. Once again, unsure what the Octoling liked, she got her the most basic thing she could think of; chow mein. Hopefully she liked it.

All thoughts of the Octarian enjoying her meal went out of the metaphorical window as she saw the other tipping the box downwards towards her mouth, as if she was going to drink her meal like a glass of water.

“Eight!! Eight, no no no no, cod please, no. Don’t.” Three wrapped a hand around her arm to pull it down with a desperately pleading look. “Don’t eat those like that, please. That’s disgusting.” 

“But. It’s in a cup.”

“That’s a box, for starters.” 

_They’re practically the same thing!_ Eight huffed as she placed it down on her lap, raising a single eyebrow. “Fine, how are you supposed to eat it then?” 

Three wordlessly snapped her two chopsticks in half, she’d given Eight her own pair but they were obviously not in use.

“So you just,” Granted, she never was _good_ at doing this, despite living off of fast food for the last two years. Getting the hang of chopstick with noodles was never her forte, but she still managed to get a solid chunk of food into her beak. “Kinfa schoop it up” 

It took her a few tries and a moment where she honestly figured using her hands would be more efficient than this, but Eight finally got a mouthful into her beak and. **Sweet merciful baby zapfish.** Eating hot food is something she would never, ever take for granted ever again. It was that good. A soft hum of approval left her as she hunched her shoulders, taking a moment to savor the taste and- ah who was she kidding, she’d already chopstick’d another mouthful down into her beak. Sauce was getting all around her mouth, but in this moment she couldn’t care less. 

Meanwhile, Three was eating at a comparatively sedate pace. That and it was hard to focus on food with an adorable cephalopod across from her. It was difficult to deny how cute Eight looked while scoffing down food. That wasn’t weird, right? It had more to do with that little smile on her face rather than the actual eating itself but still. At least she wasn’t going to drink it. A few weeks ago, if Cuttlefish would’ve seen her like this, he would’ve probably keeled over laughing. It was odd to think how things had suddenly started changing so quickly. She hadn’t really thought much of it before but the plaza was literally covered in Octolings. That might’ve been an overstatement but there was still more than usual, because usually- 

“Hey!” 

Daydreaming around Eight proved to be rather dangerous. She’d finished her noodles pretty quickly and had decided to steal a chopstick-full of Three’s.

“Eight! That waf my foof!” 

The undeniably cocky, proud smirk the Octoling donned was enough to make Three huff and sulk into the neck piece of her hood. Granted, she ate slowly but that was her food! Getting lost in thought was her thing! The agent was too busy being huffy to noticed she still had her face tucked in the turtleneck. Now there was sauce on her favourite jacket and she had another reason to sulk. Eight out burst out in laughter.

That laugh wasn’t exactly helping Three’s embarrassed flush go away. How was this _fair?_ She was being mocked AND Eight had a pretty laugh and now she had sauce on the front of her hero gear. Oh well, just another stain to add to the collection. It wasn’t like she’d washed this thing in moons 

Once everything had been cleared up the shorter of the duo mentioned she was going to get changed out of her gear. The only response she got was a nod from Eight, who’d already returned to trying to repair the Squee-G. It was weird, time had flown so fast today. Usually days dragged on and on and often blurred together for the Inkling. Something about today felt oddly different. Three decided she liked it. 

Once she’d returned, Eight had moved to the sofa. The CQ device in hand looking like a yellow submarine from the bright yellow of her shirt. Eight needed some new clothes, Three decided. She couldn’t just wear the same thing over and over again. Taking a seat beside her, the Inkling slumped downwards. It was nice to be out of her agent gear once more. The continuous yet soft typing from the other beside her consistently reminded the agent of the others presence. Tomorrow sounded like a good time to take a tour of Inkopolis, they could get her some clothes and potentially a phone too.

…

What on earth was that smell? What smelt like pennies in this apartmen- 

“Oh my cod, E-Eight!” 

A quick glance over made all of Three’s hearts jolt. A large stain was covering the back of Eight’s shirt, turning the yellow fabric into an odd sort of teal. “Stay there a sec.”

The Octoling just looked confused as she watched the other more or less catapult herself towards the kitchen with a yell of “And take your shirt off!” 

Guilt was becoming pretty associated with Three today. How could she have forgotten about those bandages from last night?! Returning with replacements and scissors, she had to avert her attention back down to the ground and ask Eight to turn as she sat back down on the sofa. Regardless of her urgency, it still felt weird to stare. 

Peeling the old bandages off wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience. The ink had soaked completely through them and they were still wet to the touch. The wound, on the other hand, looked at least a little better than it did last night. It wasn’t dripping onto her carpet anymore at least. Not to say that it looked good - it was still a very long ways from healing completely. Once the wound was wrapped back up again, Three released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. That thing looked awful, and she couldn’t deny the curiosity of what caused that but now was definitely _not_ the time to bring something like that up. Silence now coated the room as Eight reached to grab up the shirt discarded on the floor, only for Three to grab it and yank it away from her. She was met with a confused gaze from the other. Wasn’t she all squeamish about her being shirtless? 

“You’re not wearing that.”

“But… You don’t like it when I’m shirtless.”

“N-no its not- It… It’s soaked in ink!”

“So?” 

“... S-So you’re not sitting around my house wearing an ink-soaked shirt, let me get you something else to wear.” 

Odd. Three smelled pretty gross most of the time, yet she seemed to so set on making sure all the things she got to wear were clean and fresh. Weird. Eight wasn’t sure why, but wearing clothes that were stained with ink wasn’t a new thing to her. She wouldn’t have even noticed that the open gash on her back was bleeding if Three hadn’t yelled her name. 

Reasons as to _why_ it wasn’t a new thing escaped her and she didn’t really have time to dwell on it before Three came back with another shirt, Eight wordlessly shoving it on and getting a glance at whatever was on it. 

“S-Sorry… Was the only one I could find.”

Okay, the Inkling couldn’t deny, it was pretty embarrassing to still have a shirt with a meme on it that was probably over well over a thousand years old. In her defence, cats. Cats were and still are excellent memes.

“A-Are the bandages alright?”

“What?” 

“Like. Are they in a good place, are they comfy? Are they hurting your back?” 

“No? I didn’t even know I was bleeding to be honest.” 

What? 

_HOW? How on earth did she NOT feel it soaking through? That was a big fucking gash!_

“Thank you, though.” 

“Huh?” 

“Like. For the bandages. I can’t really tell how bad it is, but judging by your reaction it must be pretty gnarly, right?” She turned to the other, brushing a wiggling tentacle out of her eyes.

“Well. Yeah, it’s pretty gross but you’re welcome? It ain’t a big deal, even if it was a paper cut I’d wanna make sure that didn’t get infected, that shit can burn y’know?” She gave a slight shrug, unsure how well it would be perceived in the slumped position. 

“Still, thanks. It’s uh-” How to word this. It made Eight feel rather warm and soft inside knowing Three was _that_ concerned about her injuries. “It makes me happy.” 

“What, a giant hole in your back?” 

“No-” Cod, were all Inklings this dense? “The bandages.” 

“Oh. Well, anythin’ for Inkopolis’ savior ‘n all. I can’t offer much but Cuttlefish stuck ya with me and I don’t like knowin’ someone who’s gonna be staying with me is gonna be in pain.” All while talking, Three had leant over and something dark blue in shade off of the nearby table and placed it on her lap. “I’ll check em again tomorrow night, make sure that wound’s gettin better n stuff.” 

Three was not good at talking, it was never her forte, not something she enjoyed at all. Around Eight it felt a little easier to run her mouth. Granted, it was all done on anxiety and nerves alone but it felt easier than talking to Callie or Cuttlefish. Or Old Ones forbid, Marie.

Regardless, it was past 9pm. Meaning it was game time. 

And game time went pretty smoothly till Three felt eyes on her. That sound of Eight typing had long stopped and it was becoming slightly harder to focus on what she was doing when she felt the sofa dip ever so slightly. All she wanted was some time with her ancient but still kicking 3DS. The model was old as hell and every game on the system could be bought for a newer system, even though it didn’t have that ‘authentic’ feel. Not that it mattered as it was getting harder and harder to focus with Eight now more or less peering over her shoulder. 

“W-What?” she finally croaked out, both their heads turning to look at eachother. Three didn’t really appreciate how close they were, a few more paces and their noses would’ve been smushed together.

“Whatcha doin’?” 

“Playing Pokemon, ain’t you ever seen it before?” 

“No? Looks like a tiny control panel.” 

“I mean the game, ya can switch em out and play different things on here.” 

The wordless head tilt was all the signal Three needed.

“There’s TONNES of games you can get too, this models a bit outdated by a few thousand years but I still think it’s pretty cool. So you don’t know anything about Pokemon?” 

“Nope.” 

A rather sly smile lit up Three’s features. 

“Hooo boy. Well, lemmie start by saying you’re in for quite the ride. So, this game’s Crystal so its mega mega old, still really well received and all. Graphics are completely dated but I think they still got quite the charm to ‘em, don’t ya think?” She moved the handheld a little to her right for Eight, beginning a long long ramble about the entire game franchise’s history, and judging by the Octoling shifting closer; she was hooked onto every word that came from the Inkling’s mouth as she chattered into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A proper tour of the square has Eight all excited!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy, I think this is the longest chapter to date! Thank y'all for being so patient and what not, I never expected this to get so much attention but it really does mean a lot! <3 I hope you enjoy this chapter! 
> 
> And If anyone id interested, ref sheets have been created for all 3 of my agents! http://octoshott.tumblr.com/post/177187956578/revamped-and-new-my-agents-three-months-ago-i

It wasn’t as if the Octarian wasn’t _interested_ in what Three was saying, that wasn’t it at all. But Eight honestly couldn’t remember how long she’d been talking.. By now the weariness hanging over her head was getting strong and stronger as the other continued. It was a fight to keep her eyes open, a fight the Octarian was absolutely losing.

“And that’s how Tauros went from being literally the best Pokemon in Gen one to the worst-” 

The Agent hadn’t spoken this much in years; excitedly rambling on and on about her favourite games and moments and characters, trying to explain each and every Pokemon, showing Eight her team party thus far (Croconaw, Heracross and Mareep) all the while. Her cheeks hurt from smiling for so long.

The Poketalk had been cut short by Three feeling a soft weight rest on her shoulders. Craning her neck back, she glanced over to see the other Agent with her mouth slightly agape, fast asleep. She wasn’t entirely sure what to feel. On one tentacle, Eight looked simply precious (even though Three would deny that) on the other- uh, _Hey?_ She was just getting to the good stuff! 

A yawn that shook the Inkling made her line of thought shift. Wait, what was the time again? Being careful as not to shift too much with the dozing Octopus on her shoulder, Three nudged her phone to life.

3:36AM. Whoops. 

Ok, fair’s fair. She had nothing to hold against Eight for this. 

Although now she was in quite the pickle. With the other snoozing, any kind of movement could potentially wake her up and she definitely didn’t want that. Trying to think of a solution to this, the agent could feel her vision dipping every so often. There had to be a way to move Eight without disturbing her right? She deserved all of the sleep she could possibly get and… 

Another yawn rippled through the Inkling, making her notched ear twitch, eyes lidded. Old Ones, it was late. Three’s head dipped towards Eight’s before she could even remember what she was worried about, the world melting away as sleep took her under its wing. The soft 8-bit tune played quietly from the 3DS abandoned on her lap, aside from that the only sound was the twos soft breathing as they slept. That and the occasional snort from Eight’s side too. 

Yet, by the time morning (afternoon, really) came Three awoke to no weight on her shoulder. Her ears wobbled from the sudden force as she looked around, about to call Eight’s name before she finally caught sight of the Octoling. She was watering her plant, which have since been relocated to the window, with a red plastic cup.

A warbled yawn left Three as she stretched, catching Eight’s attention. It was an honest albeit sudden concern that Eight had somehow left the apartment. Not that she couldn’t or anything, just that she didn’t know the city. The last thing she wanted was for her to get lost down some shady alleyway getting sold scalped merch. The thought made the Inkling shudder.

Speaking of the city, “Hey Eight?” 

“Mm?” She gave a quick glance to the still in wake up state Inkling.

“How’d you feel about a tour of Inkopolis today?” 

The Octoling’s expression immediately shifted, her ears flicking upwards. “For real?!” 

“Well,” Three stood, scratching the side of her face. It felt oddly itchy today. Eh, nothing to dwell on. “We need to get you some new clothes first of all, a phone too.”

“Phone? ...I don’t want one of those.” 

The obvious discomfort on Eight’s face didn’t go unnoticed by the barely awake Three yet she still pouted at such a reaction.

“Oookay then. How am I gonna keep in contact with you? I’m pretty sure you won’t wanna be attached to my hip twenty four seven while living here, right?” 

“I can yell.”

“Eight, we live in a city that covers the better part of an entire peninsula.” _Whatever that was._

“That’s fine, you can be loud.” 

Several different phrases all popped into Three’s head. There was just so many things she could say here. Four of which were indeed quite loud. 

Whatever, they’d cross that hill when they came to it. 

“It’ll just be like a, uh mini CQ device? But with games on it and stuff, and a clock.” Three shrugged, it was kind of hard to explain. She guessed she could wrap her head around Eight’s nerves about owning something that tried to turn her into a gross octo smoothie. 

“You’ll seem ‘em when we get there, speakin’ of which.” Snatching her discarded phone, Three rubbed under her eye while checking the time. 12:45. Not the worst! Actually that was pretty early for her. 

“I’m gonna go get outta these real quick”, she warned Eight as she slowly backtracked to her room, “You wanna eat here or get something in Inkopolis?” 

The Octopus hummed in thought. While cereal was good ,she was curious about all the other foods the surface had to offer. “Will it be cereal again?” 

Three really did want to show Eight all of the cool things topside. Food was a pretty big thing in her life and of course she wanted to share that with her new room mate. Which was why a mini tidal wave of embarrassment hit Three as she looked at the other. _Of course it was going to be cereal again, she couldn’t cook! Or had food in general._ She was pretty sure most and all of the food if any left in those cupboards would be out of date by now anyways. 

“Inkopolis it-it is.” She stumbled over her words before disappearing out of sight down the hall. Eight gave her a look for wearing the same set of gear three days in a row, which she shrugged off, the two headed back into the much more awake city. 

It wasn’t exactly hard to find a free seat nowadays. Many tiny business had their doors open to the lot of hip and cool squid kids out turfing. Another session of watching Eight try to keep down her excitement of new food had Three trying to choke down another blush. She simultaneously loved and hated that oh so new feeling that bubbled in her stomach and burned in her throat whenever Eight’s expression switched to one of withheld joy or curiosity. 

She couldn’t even remember what the two had eaten as they walked slowly away, gears turning in the agents all but slow head as she figured out where she wanted to go. The turf war tower should be saved for last, right? That was the big thing in Inkopolis nowadays, right right it wasn’t even called that anymore. _Deca_ tower. Whatever. Cod that made her feel old. 

So absorbed in her thoughts, Three wasn’t even aware of the oncoming lamppost right in her way. The loud laughter and sudden pain making itself present spelt out to her what exactly went down as she moved to rub her forehead. 

“Something on your mind I take it, _Agent_ Three?” 

Three was dense, but she could detect the lace of sarcasm in the others voice, raising a brow at such.

“Yeah. Wondering where I wanna take you first, Inkopolis’ is a big place, no way we can tackle the whole thing in a single day but I wanna show ya’ the important places of the square.” 

“I’m flattered that you’re putting so much thought into it, really I am, but you don’t need to overthink it so much that you walk straight into a pole. I called your name like, four times but I guess that pole was super interesting, huh?”

It was quite the job holding her beak shut as she cleared her throat, stepping around the pole to continue walking. _Maybe bumping into the pole would’ve helped me get an idea of where to go first, Eight, you don’t know how my brain works._

 

The walk back to the square was more or less silent. A few questions from Eight happened every now and then that Three didn’t mind answering. She wasn’t entirely sure when exactly she’d slowed her pace to walk alongside the Octoling but seeing her ears perk and eyes flicker to every little mundane thing was nice.

A quick pitstop had left Eight a little restless. The sounds from the lively place caught her attention as she peered down a nearby alley way. A torn, dented fence was blocking off potential access and trash was littered alongside it. It looked dark and dusty but the light spilling in from the square seemed to give it an odd little glow. 

“You won’t be long right?” 

It had occurred to Three that today was probably going to be long and she wanted to stop to grab a quick drink to carry around with her. It was a hot day in Inkopolis and dehydrating wasn’t on her to do list.

“Nah. I’ll be quick, just stay there okay?”

She knew she’d be in there ten times longer if the other came in. It was just a convenience store but knowing Eight it would appear more like a toy store to a toddler. Yet, she still found herself browsing for two drinks instead of one by the end of it, carefully gazing across the shelf they had to offer. What would she even like? 

“You didn’t ask her?” 

“Ah!” 

Fumbling with the bottle she had in her hands, Three sighed softly when she managed to get a hold on it. The last thing she wanted today was spilling soda all over the floor of a convenience store. Now, to see who scared the living daylights out of her. Swivelling around, her frown was quickly shifted to an unamused pout. There was Agent Four in all their short, obnoxious glory.

“Can I _help_ you?”

“You didn’t ask her what drink she wanted?” 

Three shifted the bottle in her hand from right to left. 

“She doesn’t even know she’s getting anything to drink and- Hey! It’s none of your business!” 

A grin donned the face of a particular Inkling sitting comfortably behind the counter as they shifted to sit on top. 

“It is now! Whatcha doin’ out here?” 

“Buying black market ability chunks, what does it look like I’m doing?” 

A fake gasp made her ears twitch in frustration as she went back to making her choice.

“OOooh. You could get kicked outta the agency for doin’ that, y’know!”

_Just block them out, Three._

“I wonder what even happens if you get kicked outta the agency, do they like- brainwash you or something? To forget all of those secrets?”

_They’re insignificant. You don’t have to listen to them._

“Do you think I’ll get to be Agent Three when they sack you?”

“Alright, pest.” The woosh of her cape sounded cool in her head, but in reality probably looked pretty stupid. “I’m _not_ getting sacked from my agent work.”

“They don’t pay ya, do they? Cause if they do then wooow, I’m getting ripped off.” 

“No! That-That’s not the point!” 

The ever widening grin on the other’s face made Three’s ink boil as she took a few more steps towards the counter.

“Then why ya gettin’ so worked up about it? Is it cause they’ll take away Agent Eight?”

The sudden idea made Three feel a little uneasy, whatever she was going to spit back put on pause as she actually took into consideration what the other Agent said. It wasn’t that she particularly wanted Eight around, but the thought of her staying with someone who wasn’t exactly… Octarian friendly was rather uncomfortable. Was she Octarian friendly? Was Eight staying with her a good idea? 

“Hey uh, Earth to Agent Three?” 

A nudge brought her back from what could’ve been a rather intense thinking session, squinting at that ever prominent smile. “What?” 

“It’s cause of that, ain’t it?” 

“Look, I don’t know how much experience you’ve had out in the field, ‘Agent’ Five” sarcastic bunny quotes intact. 

“It’s Agent Four.”

“But If I lost my position as Agent Three, you’d be a million light years away from the right answer if you thought I’d be worried about what was going to happen to Agent Eight.” 

“That sounds like someone who’s worried about whats gonna happen to Eight.” 

It took an overwhelming amount of willpower not to scream then and there. 

“You know- I have things to do and places to be, I don’t have to waste my time talking to you.” 

“Then why are ya?” 

Tough as it was not to snap back, Three returned to browsing for a drink. That little pipsqueak had no right prying into her business! Agent 8 was fine, she was gonna be fine! Three wasn’t gonna lose her job! She was Agent 3 for crying out loud.

A frustrated huff left her nose as she felt the others eyes on her once more, trying to ignore that ever present feeling of someone watching over her shoulder- even if Four was still just sitting on the counter.

“I think she’d like cherry.”

“Excuse me?”

“Y’know. Cherry flavoured. I think Eight’d like that!” 

_Yeah, right. Like Eight would want Cherry of all flavours. This kids just pulling your cape._

Not wanting to keep the excited Octoling waiting any longer, Three grabbed a drink and headed to the counter, tossing out some cash she had lying around in her pocket. 

Ignoring Four’s happy go lucky “Thank you for shopping with us and have a great day, Agent Three~!” she finally headed outside, squinting a little from the intense sun.

“Alright so, ya ready to-” Pausing in her quick greeting, Three’s eyes quivered as she took in the sight in front of her. 

“Oh! You’re back! Yeah, I wanna know everything about the square and the city! Literally take me down every alley I want to see everything!!” 

“Geez, Slow down. The city’s a big place, I’d gladly take you on the sky tram sometime or something but right now it’s just gonna be the square and possibly some places downtown.” 

Even that couldn’t tear the excited look away from the Octoling, but Three had more pressing matters to address.

“But uh. Before we head off, what uh. What’s going on with the whole-”, she gestured down to her stomach, moving her hand up and down.

Eight’s shirt had been tied right beneath her chest in an awkward scruff. It would have showed most of her dark skin had it not been for the bandages. 

“Oh! It feels sorta… Better like this, y’know?” She shrugged, tips of her tentacles curling and twisting over themselves with defensive embarrassment. “It feels nice!” 

“I… Well. Alright.” There wasn’t really anything _wrong_ with her wearing that dumb meme shirt like a makeshift crop top, but Three would be lying if she said it wasn’t getting under her skin. And stomach, which was doing something between flopping and fluttering. Was it hot out or was it just her? She was quick to forcibly shake the thought off. The drinks went into her cartoon logic hammerspace (actually a nifty bit of reversed engineered human technology, but there’d be another mass extinction before an Inkling on the streets could tell you how it works) to free her hands. Making sure Eight didn’t run off into the streets required a full grip.

“So. Can we go now?” Eight snatched Three’s wrists, smiling down at her. 

_Cod, why were her hands so dainty and pretty. They were more or less claws and they were still so soft and-_

“Y-Yes! Just, lemme just put these away.” 

Three didn’t even get a chance to reply before she was all but yanked along. It escaped the Inkling why Eight was so excited, they’d been here in the past two days or so. But they needed to get some stuff for her, so if she could worm a tour in and make Eight happy while getting some actual stuff done then today would be pretty productive! After she fixed her cape though. 

The introduction was more or less Three pointing things out and explaining them. What was supposed to be a quick point and explain tour had Eight dragging Three towards anything that caught her interest, whether that be just a simple bird or a bike. Because bicycles weren’t a thing underground, apparently. It was leaving Three a little winded as she was yanked all around the square. She’d honestly never seen anyone so excited over a lamppost before. 

“This place is so colorful! I don’t know how Inkling’s could ever tire of seeing it.” The Octoling turned on her heel, holding her arms out as she smiled at Three. 

Three shoved her mouth into the collar of her jacket, face slowly becoming more of a greenish teal by the second. The sun was catching Eight’s tentacles at the most beautiful angle this wasn’t _fair!_

“It’s a daily sight, they’re usually here to turf ‘n all that junk.” She mumbled, gaze on the ground.

Deciding to avoid the hustle and bustle of the more popular stores, the two took a detour out of the Square to try and find some less crowded places for clothes. It escaped Three how they ended up right back where they started in less than an hour. Although visiting other establishments wasn’t exactly a waste of time given how exuberant her new roommate was. 

It’s just… Eight looked so good in _everything_. Dresses? Check. Tank tops? Absolutely! Varsity Jackets? 100%. Three never figured it’d be this difficult to NOT buy clothes. She’d taken on boss kettles that we’re easier than this! It worked out pretty well. Three managed to wrangle the other into a nearby electronics shop and actually get her a phone; even if she did try to toss the first one through the glass window of the store. 

The duo’s shopping session had left the two right on Jelfonzo’s doorstep. A handful Inklings and Octolings kept glancing over at the pair curiously before turning back to browsing. Regardless of how many bags the Agent was carrying, she deserved it. It wasn’t like she ever had anything to call her own besides a weapon of some kind. Maybe she should’ve let Eight rope her into buying some things.

“Hey, Three! What about this?” 

All thoughts aside, Three’s head was turned to view Eight in a rather simple looking T-shirt. Despite it just being a regular t-shirt, it really did suit her. 

“Ah! Those robes very much suit thee! The Octoking Jersey, a most excellent choice! thee has't excellent gust, misseth! Shall thee beest purchasing?” 

As odd as Jelfonzo’s speaking pattern was, the Inkling understood. Well, enough to make a purchase at least. Three gave him a quick nod, already handing over the cash.

“Can I wear this like, right now?” 

Three shrugged, brushing one of her tentacles over her shoulder. “I don’t see why not?” 

Once the other had switched shirts, the difference was immediately noticeable. That was so much better. Three mustered a smile as she watched the other examine the back and front in a nearby mirror. At least she didn’t attempt to try on a shirt but nearly yanking her own off in the middle of the store like last time. The thought still made a flush rise to her cheeks.

“Y’ready to go?” Three cocked her head, that smile seemingly here to stay for a while as Eight wandered over to her. 

“Yup! Thanks again!” She gave a small wave to the Jellyfish before the two left the store. “So where too now?”

“Well, I was thi-ACK” 

‘ _Capes are impractical, you know._ ’ 

‘ _Three, it doesn’t even make you look cool._ ’

The snarky voice of Marie circled Three’s head as she was yanked back towards the automatic door. In all honesty, she was surprised it didn’t rip. This thing had been on its last legs when she first got it, nevermind the whole underground fiasco and then some. It took some tugging and some inventive cursing, but the door eventually managed to free her.

“Stupid fuckin’ automati-” 

The high esteemed agent looked more like a ragdoll as she twisted her cape around herself when checking for anymore rips and tears. Her ears suddenly shot straight upwards in the midst of the mess. Her head whipped around to glance at Eight, who seemed to be covering their beak. A large smile was poorly hidden behind their hands. 

“I-It’s not funny!” 

“Th-... That was the funniest thing i’ve ever seen!” Eight finally burst out in laughter, much to Three’s dismay. 

“HHA YOU WERE JUST LIKE. _WOOSH_. A-And got yanked SO far back oh my cod. I’m surprised that didn’t rip y-your entire cape!”

Judging by the unamused expression on Three’s face, the hilariousness of the situation was lost on her. Going over to the table was a tactical retreat away from the guffawing Octopus. A few sparrows that were pecking at random crumbs on the ground scattered from her wrath.

“So, what’s next?” 

In all honesty, she didn’t really have an answer. She was too focused on pulling out her drink from earlier and trying to open it. It was one of those novelty marble ones that never seemed to go out of style. Regardless of whether they were in style or not, Three thought they tasted good. Fumbling with the cap, she pressed her hand flat on top until the pressure forced the marble downwards. Success! Though it was kind of hard to enjoy her efforts when she noticed her small audience. 

“... What?” 

“What was that? You like, broke the top?” 

“Oh, nah it's just the marble. You push it down and it stays in the bottle, see?” She raised the bottle, letting the marble clink from side to side. 

“That seems kinda pointless for a drink.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty stupid.”

“I wanna try it.” 

Three couldn’t stop the odd chuff passing her lips at the other girls words, placing her beverage down on the table. 

“Well, lucky for you, Eight…” 

It took a moment of searching to grab it, but she placed it down in front of her quickly. Eight’s ears perking ever so slightly.

“I bought ya one earlier. Wasn’t sure what flavour you wanted so I got uh-”, a quick glance to the label made her frown, “... Cherry?” 

_Fuck. Four better be right about her seeming to like Cherry or I’m gonna find them and take all of their sea snails. Are those even a thing anymore around here?_

Taking the bottle, Eight examined the label on the top before peeling away at it with her claws. She made it look easy to get those things off! Curse those claws.

“So I just… Push this little thing down and it opens?”

“Mhm, that’s basically it.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, Three watched as the other tried to press down on the seal. It was a struggle to keep her beak shut as nothing the Octoling did worked. No matter how hard she tried the marble didn’t seem to be budging. 

Now, everyone at the agency knew if there was an opening to best someone else, Three would take it. Which was exactly why she asked her to hand the bottle over after a few more seconds of trial and error. That overly competitive part of her mind was telling her this would be a perfect way to show off to Eight! Show how strong she was! How-

“Still no luck, oh strong and powerful Agent Three?” 

“C-Can it…” A huff left her nose as she pulled her away, scowling down at the clearly unopenable flask. The defeated clink of the bottle hitting against the table was accompanied with a shrug from the Inkling followed moments later.

“I _can_ do it. I just want to see if you can get the bottle open. After all, it’s your drink.” 

The look from Eight caused her to glance away, taking another nervous sip of her own. Regardless of her words another attempt at trying to help the other was right around the corner. 

Which ended up with rough, coarse hands being pressed over the cap while dainty, soft claws were pressed down atop her own. It was kind of hard to focus with said feeling so prominent. It was so distracting that Three didn’t even notice that the two had actually opened the drink.

Well. Less opened, more exploded. And they’d just bought those clothes too.

“Huh. Yours didn’t do that?” Eight cocked her head, one of her tentacles flicking some of the excess fizz from the end onto the ground. 

“I guess mine wasn’t stuck? I dunno…” 

_Fuckin’ Four._

Three somewhat hoped that hadn’t ruined Eight’s mood, though judging from the first sip everything seemed to be fine. Maybe even better than before if she dared believe it. At least she liked it. A smile paired with a satisfied hum left the Octoling as she stretched out. 

“But, like I said, where are we going next?” 

“Well, everything I more or less had planned for today is done… It's a little too late to go venture out further into the city.” Most details about the whole shoe shopping and pants shopping experience had been left out, mainly because Eight only wanted jeans and nothing but jeans. The kind with pockets big enough to swallow your whole arm and possibly your firstborn’s soul.

“Guess we can do something in the square if there’s anything that interests you?” 

She may have gone a little cross eyed trying to look at her phone and drink at the same time. Only a little bit, she was sure of it. At least Eight wasn’t providing commentary.

4:45PM. Was it nearly five already? 

“What about that place over there? You haven’t shown me around there yet.” 

Eyes aligned and ears perked, she looked over to where she was pointing.

“The arcade?” 

“Yeah! You mentioned it when telling me what each building around here was but, I can’t lie I’m kinda curious about it.”

And so it was. Three wasn’t even sure when the last time she set foot inside the artful gallery of moneysuckers. Weirdly enough, everything seemed the same but the machines. Eyesore carpets, obnoxious themes blaring from the nearby speakers, and a dead looking employee. An oddly comforting symphony of beeps and boops was just barely audible through the absolute clutter of noise. The only thing missing, thankfully, were the screaming children. Memories of the old guitar based rhythm game that was always stashed at the back of the arcade suddenly surfaced; as did ones of questionable fashion. 

“So you can just play games here for free ‘n stuff?” 

“Not exactly for free, they cost cash but you won’t get an authentic arcade experience with any old simple console.”

“We didn’t have any arcades back at the valley. At least from what I can remember. I remember seeing some smashed stuff like this around the place but no matter how much me and the others tried to fiddle with it we never really got em to work. I think that’s why I like machinery so much, it's fun to mess around with. Even if you get shocked or your wires might fizzle out, the idea of actually getting something up and running is so exciting.” 

“I’d probably blow myself up if I tried to wire up anything that wasn’t a HDMI cable.”

“Heh, yeah.” 

Three rolled her eyes at the response, looking up at the other with something she hoped came off as a scowl but she knew deep down it was more akin to a smile. 

“S’pretty cool you can do all of that stuff. Oh, but uh, here.” Tugging out her wallet, she handed Eight any leftover cash she had stashed in there. “Go nuts. Play whatever you want, I’m sure I got some more coins rattling around in here somewhere so if you run out just come find me.”

“Oh! Thank you, Three!” Another stomach-churning, blush-inducing grin had Three speed-walking to leave the Octoling to her arcading adventures. 

Besides, she was looking for something specific in here. It’d had been a while, so the chances of them even still having a machine like it were probably slim. But low and behold there it was. The series had gone through so many names throughout its existence that she didn’t have enough digits and limbs to count. Various files that had been found on human tech granted Inklings all the knowledge they needed about old video games. Cautiously, as if someone was watching her or the machine itself was dangerous, Three approached. She carefully picked up the plastic guitar by the strap and placed it over her shoulder. Man, had it really been this long? 

Navigating the overly cheesy menu was a breeze, the cartoonish guitar related noises with each button press left a nostalgic boosted smile on her lip as she picked out a song. It was little surprising how quickly she took up mashing the buttons on the guitars neck, purely focused on only what was coming next. The first couple of easy notes were gone within seconds, a vague warm up to prep for the real fight. Her foot tapped quietly against the carpeted floors, free hand strumming the fake plastic part that didn’t even remotely resemble the strings of a real guitar, but something about it still felt right. It was the spirit of things.

Harshly muttered, half-hearted lyrics were sung under her breath reignited a passion for the game in her. Cod, why was it so satisfying to see that little score on the left go up and up? The last few notes began to fall downwards as Three raised the headstock upwards, holding down the last button as the song began to trail off. Nothing could stop the rather dorky looking grin on her beak as she lowered the guitar down and sighed softly. 

Not a terrible score if she _did_ say so herself. 

“Wooah lady, that was really cool!” 

If she wasn’t wearing the strap, that controller would’ve hit the floor by now. Spinning around on her heel, Three came to stare at two uncomfortably close younger looking Inklings. They looked fresh out of their human forms, with wide grins to boot.

“I’ve never see anyone get that close to a perfect run in person before!” 

How was one supposed to respond to compliments again? Three didn’t know, nor was she sticking around to find out. All she could get out was a half muttered thank you that sounded honestly more like a question at this point while scarabbling to hang the controller back up. Phew, social interaction averted. Now where was her plus one?

It didn’t take long to stumble across the Octarian. She was stationed at one of the many claw machines throughout the arcade. Oh boy. Three couldn’t help but push down a smirk. There was no way Eight was gonna get _anywhere_ with those rigged pieces of garbage. She wondered how long it would take for the other to get frustrated and give up. 

Judging by how Eight was now slamming her foot into the side of the machine, pretty damn quick.

“E-Eight!” 

“Hmn? Oh hey, Three.” The vaguely cheerful hum did not match the sudden smack to the side of the machine. 

“What are you doing?!” 

“It’s rigged.” 

“I know it's rigged! _Everyone_ knows it's rigged! But you can’t just go around beating the hell outta it!” 

“I’m not beating it up?”

The Agent stopped in her tracks, a little tongue tied.

“W-what? Eight, I may be slightly dumb sometimes-” 

“Slightly?”

“But I’m not blind, you were _just_ kickin’ it!” 

“ _Sometimes?_ ”

“Eight, you can’t just go around kicking machines because they don’t work they way you want them too.” 

The taller of the duo pressed her arm up against the machine, quirking a brow. 

“But I’m fixing it. Like, I’m making it not rigged.”

The only response from Three was a confused head tilt, which garnered a huff from the Octoling. 

“Here, watch.”

Another kick made Three’s anxiety spike. Empty arcade or not, there were still security cameras. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be feeling when Eight dropped a coin into the machine. What was the emotional form of ‘I told you so’ again?

Fate proved the least hygienic Agent wrong. Out of the machine came a knockoff plush. Of course, Three had seen it happen before once upon a blue moon, but damn that was quick. Some part of her wanted to say that her kicking the machine and the machine deciding to actually play along was just pure luck. Then again, she didn’t want those kicks to turn into punches. Or just straight up breaking the glass. Or turn on her.

“See? I was trying to get this for like three whole minutes but this thing’s claw is rigged to only grab after a certain number of tries.” She held the plushie under her arm with a shrug. It was hard to make out what on earth it was, but it seemed to be in the shape of a duck. ‘Seemed to be’ was a very generous choice of words when it came to this amalgamation of cheap fabric. Between Three’s comments about not knowing what on earth the plushie was supposed to be and Eight retorting that it looked cute. The two hung around the arcade for a handful of minutes more checking out some other games with thankfully no more machine-related violence, by the time they exited the square was cast in a golden glow. The Octoling was more captivated by the slowly setting sun. Not even the flock of seagulls pecking at an overturned trash can bothered her. The ends of her tentacles curled upwards not unlike her smile; she really had no clue how the creatures of Inkopolis could tire of such a fantastic view.

“Eight?”

“Hmn? Sorry, what?”

“I said, do you mind if we take a seat by the tower for a second? I wanna make sure we have everything before we start heading back.”

With Merch and his suitcase long gone, Three had plenty of space to place all of their luggage down for a second. 

“Do you want some help carrying those?” 

“No! No, you’re fine! I got this, don’t you worry-” 

“ _ **EIGHT!**_ ” An almost muffled shout caused both of them to flinch.

Glancing over to the nearby glass window, Eight’s expression perked as she saw two familiar faces looking through. There’s no way she could ever forget that voice after it nearly blew out her eardrums.

“MC Princess! DJ Hyperfresh!” Abandoning the Agent, she dashed over to the window like she was seeing a family member at the airport. Damn glass separating her from seeing them properly! 

“Heh, ya don’t gotta call us that Eight! We’re on formal terms, ya know! You can just call me Pearl! Hang on- ‘Reena lets go! I wanna see Eight!” 

Pearl took the taller Octoling’s hand with such haste that she barely had enough time to grab their bags off of the table in the studio. Just a moment later they were standing in front of the less than famous Ink-Octo duo.

“There we go! The window ain’t between us no more!!” Pearl couldn’t help but open her arms up to the other, giving her a quick hug before passing her to Marina for the same treatment. It really was like a family reunion.

“So how have you been up on the surface! We’re sorry we couldn’t come to the canyon with you beforehand, our producer called and- anyhow, that’s not important.” The dark skinned Octoling quickly began to explain, clearly eager to hear how their friend was doing.

“O-Oh! It’s been great! It’s been a little tough adjusting to a new home but I think I’m getting there!” 

“You got a home up here already, right? Me and Marina we’re worried sick about you last night n shit. The thought of ya out on the streets was just stomach-churning.” She shuddered, glancing over to similarly concerned Marina.

“I told you two in the chatroom, didn’t I? I’m living with Three now!”

“That… Wasn’t a joke?” 

“Pearlie! I told you she was being serious!” 

“I mean it was a little hard to believe after that whole fiasco underground, ‘Reena…” The Inkling pouted, before turning to look at back at the other Octoling. 

“Speakin’ of Three, where is she? She didn’t leave you out here on her own did she? Cause if I swear to fuckin’ cod I’m-” 

“I’m right here.” 

The trio turned to look at the approaching Inkling, bags readjusted to look a little less like a packmule.

“Do I know you? Or does Eight for that matter?” Something fierce rose to the surface as she squinted at the latest trend she missed. 

“Three, they were on the helicopter ride back to Inkopolis with us?” 

“Oh. Right.” 

“They helped me down in the metro and-” 

“Woah WOAH. Scratch the ‘cord a second. Hold up. Rewind. You’re asking _us_ if you know us?” The crown bearing Inkling took a step forward, quirking a brow. 

“Pearlie, I really don’t think you need to-”

“Should I know you guys? I mean, aside from the helicopter stuff.” 

“We’re Off The Hook, ya fool!”

“Never heard of you.” 

Eight swore she saw Pearl’s crown slipping despite no movement from her, physics bedamned.

“What do ya live under a rock or something?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you under much more... _calmer_ terms, Agent Three!” Marina moved to step around and in front of her girlfriend, taking Three’s hand and shaking it gently. “We didn’t exactly meet under the best times, so it's understandable that you probably don’t recognise us.” 

Despite the slight tension, Three still shook her hand with a gentle nod. Her memories on that day had a gap between hitting the blender and waking up on a helicopter. She’d hit her head twice that day and neither had been to kind on what had been selected to remember. 

“Is everything going well between you two?” She asked, glancing between both of them as Pearl shuffled to stand beside her with folded arms and a scowl. 

“Yeah! We just finished exploring the Square and getting some new clothes ‘n stuff.” Eight piped up, a smile on her face. 

“Oh right! Check it, Eight this is for ya! A welcome gift to Inkopolis.” Pearl took a moment to dig around in her surprisingly deep pockets. Her phone was tugged out a moment later as she began to fiddle with it before holding it up to the Octoling. 

“Bam! A couple ‘a million to get ya started here! I’ll send it over as soon as I gotcha details,. Speaking of which, you got a phone now? ‘Cause last night the chatroom said you were still connected via your CQ thingy and I got a few phones back at my house that you can have if ya want!” 

“She’s already got one, t-thanks.” Competitive instincts aside, did Eight really just get over a million in cash? _**What?**_

“Oh shit! Lemme see!! We gotta getcha connected to the chatroom so we can stay in contact!” 

The two began to talk stuff over their phones while Marina turned to Three with a soft smile.

“Ah, I hope you'll excuse Pearl, we were with Eight throughout most of the ordeal and we know she’s had a rough time. She’s, I guess, eehh… A little, skeptical? About you taking in Eight. Not that you would mistreat her and not make her feel welcome here, _right_?.” 

Three flinched, something about Marina's tone made goosebumps flood her skin. "Y-yeah no uh. She'll. She's fine. I'm not gunna... lock h-her in a closet and feed her every three days or-or something weird like that. I want her to feel uh... F-Feel" Marina's stare was honestly making Three forget grade preschool and everything before. That included mostly all the words she knew. Why'd she have to ramble so much when nervous! "She's in good tentacles, I promise!". "Good." 

“You gotta come over to our place sometime Eight, we’ll get you all these amazin’ foods and drinks and you can pick out any bed in the ENTIRE estate that you want! You could even come over right now!!” The pygmy squid grinned so brightly there might’ve been sparkles. 

“Pearlie, you know we can’t do that tonight. We have to talk to our manager about the upcoming Splatfest and plan out the dates and everything...” And just like the sparkles went away.

“Awh, shit…”, she sighed, “Sorry Eight, maybe ‘nother time? We totally gotta do it sometime soon though, yeah?”

“Sure!” It was a little overwhelming being given so much attention in one go. “But If you don’t mind me asking, what's a splatfest? ” 

“A waste of time.” Three interjected before anyone could get another word in. With those four words she managed to get Pearl go red in the face.

“Splatfest is like this HUGE festival where two sides go against each other to find out which one is better and they decide through turf wars, whoever wins the most amount of battles is usually the winner! Popularity is thrown in there too, but it's all about the wins that counts! We perform there ‘n everything! It’s hype as fuck! You should totally partake Eight! It’s like, a right of passage here or somethin’!” 

“Pearlie, are you sure that’s such a good idea? Do you even have a weapon, Eight?” 

“No? I don’t think so?” 

“Well that ain’t an issue!! The weapon shops RIGHT there-” Before Pearl could say anything else, her phone buzzed inside of her pocket.

“Y’ello? Oh! Yeah, we’re headin’ home right now! Don’t worry, we’ll get it all sorted!” She quickly cut the call off, turning to look up at her girlfriend, taking her hand. “Marina, we gotta bounce. Manager’s gonna get prickly if we ain’t home to plan all this out and you know how she gets.” 

“Oh, yeah… We wouldn’t wanna be late on a splatfest date like last time. It was so nice to see you again Eight, feel free to message us at any time if you need anything okay?” 

“Yeah, don’t even hesitate, we’ll always be around for ya!” Another buzz from her pocket made the Inkling start walking. “C’mon ‘Reena, let’s go., See ya around Eight!!” 

“Bye Eight! Goodbye Three!” Marina managed to toss out one last goodbye before being pulled by Pearl.

With the two now left in alone, Eight sighed with a smile. “So, can we go to the weapon shop?” 

“I mean, I guess? Though we gotta hurry because its gonna shut soon.” 

At least it was right across from where they were standing. Sheldon was outside moving one of the signs when he noticed the pair approaching.

“Woah! Sorry girls, I’m just about to close up shop!” 

“O-Oh no worries!” Eight gave a soft shrug. “We can come back tomorrow, right Three?” 

Three wasn’t sure if it was due to her being overly tired from so much excitement today but seeing the other shot down like that made her insides curl. 

“Hey, Sheldon. You work for the agency right? Can’t ya let us in? Eight here is new to Inkopolis and we really wanted to pick out a good weapon for her.” 

The Horseshoe crab raised a hand to his chin, thinking for a moment, before turning to look at Three. 

“You’re an agent?” 

“... Sheldon, I’ve shopped here since I could hold a gun. It’s me, Agent Three?” 

“Well, I guess if you two are both Agents, you can come in! Though, did you two know that I designed all of the recent looks for the hero weapons! The newest Agent Four seemed to REALLY like them! Especially the charger, I’d say that was a nice homage to the original set of Hero Wea-” 

Not wanting to stand here till the moon was high, Three grabbed the others wrist and pulled her into the store. Though unfortunately Sheldon and his ever present rambles seemed to follow the two inside. 

Wow. This place had changed. Originally Sheldon didn’t even have a proper counter; it was just a shitty desk with random broken weapon parts placed on it. But look at him now! He really had a whole gig going here. Tiny display weapons were lined up, hung positioned by the front of the store with their respective sub weapons. There were even posters of the new specials hanging about. Three had played turf a few times with the new weapons, none of them really peaked her interest very much. Besides, blasters were the best weapons and _everyone_ knew that. Regardless of how much they’d fucked up her trusty Luna Blaster, it was still her favourite. She quietly followed behind Eight as the other looked between each model, sometimes stopping to get a better look before continuing on.

While Three stood beside the browsing Octoling, she caught sight of a Splatbrella being open on display and grimaced, making an odd warbling noise towards it. It was something between a snort and a gargle. One could easily identify such a sound as disgust, which seemed to turn Eight’s attention away from a nearby inkbrush.

“You okay? Catching a cold or something?” 

“Nah, just. _Splatbrella_.”

“What’s wrong with it? Is it a bad weapon?” 

“They’re always blocking my shots! My weapons a blaster, which is like uh-”, glancing around for a moment, she grabbed a standard blaster off of a nearby shelf, “-it fires out these huge shots that explode in the air. They even hit people behind walls and stuff!”

“So you don’t really have to aim?”

“And these stupid things are always getting in the way, shielding their teammates and stuff. The most humiliating thing is getting crushed by the actual shield… They’re pretty cowardly, hiding behind an _umbrella_ of all things. Just- take the shot face first, y’know?”

“Hmn… Excuse me, Sheldon, was it?” 

“And Callie mentioned I shouldn’t have made the Splattling so chrome colored but I think- Oh, mh? Have you made a decision?” 

“I’d like to take the Splatbrella please.”

Three was unsure of the sudden feeling that ignited a spark in her veins, but she was pretty sure it was some form of rage.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight discovers the joys of turf and Three remembers why she hates everything to do with it.

_Nothing could beat a good sleep. Three would stand by those words for as long as she lived. That warm and cozy feeling of being all bundled up and stretching into that perfect position. That was the good shit. Those mornings where you woke up and know you have nothing to do so you can just flop back onto your pillow and fall back asleep._

_To Agent Three, it was perfect._

“Psst. Three.” 

_Nothing could disturb a slumbering Inkling. Not an earthquake. Not a thunderstorm. Nothing._

“Threeeee. Three! Hey! Wake up!! I gotcha something!” 

_Y’know. Nevermind. A very persistent, loud Octoling whispering in her ear would do just the trick._

“Mn…Coood, what? What?” Slowly moving to sit up, the bleary eyed squid glanced around before her blurred vision landed on Eight.

“You look like a train wreck, for starters-”, was the first thing that left Eight’s beak, the second followed shortly after, “-buut, I wanted to say thank you for taking me out yesterday and getting me all of those cool things.” The bright eyed and bushy tailed Octoling had her hands behind her back, all with a slightly concerning sparkling smile on her face as she stood at the side of the bed. “So, I gotcha something!” 

“Oh.. Uh. Thanks…” Her more than sleepy brain decided to ignore any questions about this. Rubbing her eye, Three yawned. “So where is it?”

Whatever Eight was holding behind her back, Three didn’t expect it to be much. Maybe some dirt. Maybe something from her kitchen. Maybe both. The last thing Three expected was a dead bird to be yanked out from behind and dropped on her lap. Her brain had a slight processing moment, it was almost like you could hear the gears turning, before she screamed.

“ ** _EIGHT WHAT THE FUCK._** ”

Eight’s tentacles twisted in a huff, clearly unruffled by Three’s loud scream. A frown crossing her features at her generous gift being rejected with such prejudice.

“Hey, I climbed out of the window and onto the roof to catch that!”

“You **_What?_** ” 

“You could at least say thank you! I thought that was a pretty good catch!” 

The confusion written over Three’s face said more than words could in this moment. She glanced down to the bird on her lap once more, left ear twitching in disgust. 

“Eight. Like- I know the surface and all things to do with it are pretty new to you and all but. You can’t just. Drop a dead bird on someone. That’s not a gift up here.” She picked up the poor creature by its leg with a grimace. Eugh, it still had slobber on it. Moving Eight aside with a gentle nudge, Three tossed said ‘gift’ outside her open window and hoped no one nearby would notice a dead bird plummeting towards the bushes. Hopefully the gulls would take to it before any other creature found it. Farewell, ye feathered bastard. 

“I appreciate the thought, I really do.” She couldn’t lie, the disheartened look on Eight’s face was hard to stomach. “But I don’t think people really appreciate gross, decaying dead things dropped on their lap.” 

“Uh, I would? That used to be a decent meal back down in the domes and it's not like it smelled any worse than your apartment! It practically blends in!” 

Whatever response Three had planned was swallowed up by her thoughts unhelpfully kicking in. For starters, her place wasn’t that bad! … _Was her place really that bad?_ It had been a while since she’d honestly lived here long term. Agent work meant a lot of travelling! How bad could this place really be? The kitchen was probably the worst part, right? She’d never been fond of cleaning it, even when she did live here for longer than a week.

The plan for today were to give Eight a crash course in turfing. If she was serious about Splatfest, then she’d need a good ol’ fashioned Turf War Crash Course Extravaganza By Agent 3. Working Title. But now Three couldn’t stop thinking about whether there may or may not be actual life forming in her kitchen from rarely cleaning the place. 

“Hey, Eight… What’s the time?”

The Octoling rolled her eyes as she gave a shrug. “Like, seven-something?” 

A defeated groan from Three caused Eight’s miffed expression to shift gears, tilting her head at such a reaction. _What the Fuck, Eight. The sun’s probably not even happy to be up at this hour._

“Why?”

“Well, I wanted to take you turfing today. You were pretty excited about your weapon yesterday.” The thought of exactly _what_ weapon Eight brought home made her bite back another groan. Eight was a coward for picking that a weapon with a built in shield. “I figured you’d probably wanna get onto turfing as soon as you possibly could, buuut...” 

Eight hung onto every word, ears perking slightly at the sudden pause. Three couldn’t help but drag out her sentence a little more; tired as she was it was heartwarming to see Eight so interested in her next words. It was almost enough to get a smile onto Three’s face. 

“I have a question. Is my apartment really that bad?” Granted, Eight had only been here- what, three days now? Ha. Three. That was her name. 

“I’ve seen domes cleaner, Three.” Ok, ouch much? 

“Hey? You guys have giant mechanical fish to keep those clean! I don’t have one of those! That’s like- not at all fair.” 

“Well you technically do have one now, Three. So that excuse is knocked out of the metaphorical war ground.” 

Cod damn it. She was right. 

“That doesn’t count. I’m not going to be bested by a scrap of bolts. I saved Inkopolis! I wanna at least clean my kitchen before we leave.”

Eight held her tongue back. Yeah, Three? Is that all? She saved the whole world. 

“So you’re gonna clean the whole thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’re not gonna do it alone, that's for sure.” 

“Uh. No? I’ll think you’ll find that's exactly what I’m gonna do? You’re a guest here, so cleaning isn’t your job, it's _mine._ So feel free to take a seat. An’ anyways we can’t just... Live on takeaway for the rest of our lives. I wanna actually cook something for you.” The way she worded that made the Inkling freeze. She’d already passed Eight on her way out of her bedroom, but now a hand was resting on the doorway. The rest of our lives? 

“Hmn… Nah, I’m helping.” 

With Eight trailing behind, Three felt her eyes roll back. Why did Octolings have to be so persistent? And more important, why was she stuck with one of the most persistent ones!?

Despite the consistent objections from Three, the kitchen was only five seconds away, and as soon as Three started so did Eight. There was nothing the Inkling could do to stop her. Nope. Thankfully, the cephalopod duo found themselves working quietly, which in Three’s opinion was great. Not that she didn’t LIKE hearing Eight ramble on about whatever was on her mind but it was so early her brain wasn’t accepting any attempts at conversation right now. And thank the almighty Squid Gods there was no bugs in her kitchen. One thing Three really didn’t like was bugs. Bugs were dumb. Pointless. Except for beetles, those were pretty cool. Bee’s too. Chill little fuzzy dudes. Along with no bugs, there wasn’t much of anything left in kitchen. Cereal, bread, maybe some out of date sauces and sodas. 

By the time the two decided to take a quick food break, Three finally got a chance to look over their work. It didn’t look any different aside from a few things shifted here and there- but that was if you were an onlooker. To Three it was a pretty big deal. A warm sense of accomplishment bubbled in her chest as she looked at the other girl. Eight looked far more perky today. The bedraggled mess of Octoling that she’d hauled home a few days ago was a thing of the past! Then again, it could just be the fact that she didn’t sleep on the floor last night. 

Oh. The state her living room was in quickly became her primary focus. Hmn. This would absolutely not do. Still feeling a slight boost from cleaning the entire kitchen, she turned to her taller companion, who’d taken residence sitting atop the counter. It reminded her of a certain shorter Agent. Bleh. Don’t think about them.

“Yoouu… Wanna try tackling the living room?” 

Many a empty soda cans and take out boxes littered the base of the sofa and top of the TV. What could she say, the trash can was just two steps away and two steps too many for a lazy Inkling like her. That didn’t exactly halt the tidal wave of guilt that washed over the Agent though. The sofa turned bed was like some kind of dumb junkyard mountain. Her mind wandered to the night prior- her making sure the whole set up was comfortable enough for the other. Every single time the ex-test subject tried to sit down or say that it looked fine she was met with hiss and a hand swatting at her, telling her that it wasn’t ready yet. That she needed more patience. 

_‘I thought you wanted to get home and crash in bed.’_ Eight’s voice rang in her head. _‘Yet here you are fussing over the sofa. I can just sleep on the floor ag-’_

__

__

_‘No!’_

That uncomfortable silence that flooded the room that she remembered trying so hard to forget just decided to sucker punch her in the throat. It was not an enjoyable experience .

_‘Look. Eight. I want you to be comfy. Your back is sort of a big issue at the moment, so i don’t think the floors gonna be an ideal place for you to sleep. The floors not an ideal place for you to sleep anyways. You deserve a bed.’_

__

__

_‘‘I guess I just don’t really see the point. Bed’s weren’t a thing down in the valley; least from what I remember. We used to sleep in these weird handmade hammock kinda things. Or just the floor. Usually the floor’'_

_‘You get double the bed now.’'_

_‘What?’'_

_'Double bed. No questions. Extra pillows. Don’t try and argue, you’re getting double soft.'_

The soft laugh that followed in her memories was like a cough drop designed to specifically treat bad memory related sucker punches. That was better…

“Three! You back? You alive? Geez, I thought you’d like- gone for good!” 

“Hmn?- A-Ah! COD, Eight!” 

Being an Agent meant Three was prepared for anything at anytime, lightning fast reflexes. All those good agent quirks. Yet, being snapped out of a day dream by a concerned Octarian who happened to be right up in her personal bubble; so much so that their noses would be touching if Three leant forward, seemed to be enough to throw all of those quirks aside. 

Stumbling back, she scoffed. 

“Haven’t you heard of a personal bubble?”

“Nope, not really.” 

It was a good thing Eight was looking at her claws, because the squint Three was giving her could probably melt ice.

“You good though? You were like actually gone there for a solid minute. I was half considering calling Pearl and Marina over and-”

“Nevermind that, and for the love of all that is good in this world do not invite them over. I will barricade the door. Oh, and we’re cleaning the living room.” 

Pushing herself off the counter, Eight watched as Three shuffled all of the empty cans towards one another with her foot. Cleaning the kitchen was fine and all, but doing it in silence sorta sucked. “Three?”

“Uh, yeah?” 

“If we’re gonna keep cleaning, can I play some music?”

“I guess? If you want to? I don’t really have a radio though so... Oh!” 

Honestly, for a moment Eight thought she’d tripped and fallen over, having to stifle a laugh. But no. Three positioned herself so that her belly would be on the ground, hand searching under the sofa. It had to be around there somewhere. Several minutes of grunting and swearing finally rewarded the agent with one very dusty laptop. Not even blowing could dislodge the caked on film. It didn’t bother Three in the slightest bit; Eight, however, it bothered immensely. 

“My old laptop! It’s been months since I used it but it should be loud enough to work like a radio. Hell, there might be some _actual_ radio stations online playing.” 

It took some time for the old machine to ping into life, enough for Three to get up and take out the litter and enough for Eight to clean it with her shirt as quickly as possible without getting caught. You can’t just leave tech so dusty, Three! With a little bit of effort picking the right song, the speakers crackled to life. The Inkling didn’t recognise the song in the slightest, turning her head only to squint. _What?_

“...What is that?” 

“Tentakeel A-55. Octarian radio station.”

Her laptop screen had shifted to become more or less what looked like lines of muddled code. A small, black box with a few tiny letters in it rested in the centre. 

“Not to be a negative nudibranch but. Did you maybe, perhaps. Just break my laptop.”

“Pfft. No? I just couldn’t find what I wanted on any Inkling sites. Don’t worry, I can shut it down whenever I want. You’re in good claws.” This felt ever so slightly illegal. The tips of Eight’s tentacles were curving almost rhythmically to the beat of the song. “Pretty good right?” 

“It’s no Squid Squad but its. Something.” 

Even with _whatever the hell it was_ playing on her laptop, the two started on clearing the living room. Between sneezing fits the agent explained exactly why and how her consoles were the best. Three managed to introduce her to some of her favourite bands. Judging by Eight’s reaction, the only music she’d been listening for the last few years was akin to someone slamming a spoon against a scrap of sheet metal over and over again for about half an hour. Or just this radio station. Same difference. 

Three felt something bump into her hip, knocking over the small tower of cans she’d been stacking. Oh come _on!_ She just finished stacking that. She’d been planning to try and toss each one into the trash can from where was standing. That would 100% totally impress Eight, though it seemed the taller girl was busy with her own task. Dancing, it looked like. It wasn’t anything impressive by any means, her feet sliding across the carpet as she threw her arms up and down to the beat of the song playing with a warm smile on her face. It was impossible not to watch her. 

That warm feeling Three loved to hate slowly bubbled up and threatened to explode as she watched the other quietly. That blasted crooked blind once again lacing the room in an early morning glow, giving Eight a makeshift spotlight. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she swung her hips from side to side. It was a wonder where she got all of that energy. Why was her chest aching? Why did everything feel so light and fuzzy? Three didn’t know. Three did know she kind of wanted to punch something for an unknown reason. She barely noticed the other approaching, snapping her out of her daze when Eight’s claws wrapped her around her wrists.

“C’mon, Three! Dance with me!” 

“W-Wait! Eight I-” 

She yanked her forward before she could even finish her sentence, hands abandoning their grip on her wrists to slot between her fingers. Oh. This was… _**Something.**_ Three’s arms were pulled forward and back with the beat for as the two walked back and forth. Eight’s smile lit her face with a shade more befitting a squidmas tree. This was.. Everything about this was overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that Three tugged her hands away a moment later, giving the now confused and slightly disheartened Octopus a nervous look before brushing her hands down her shirt like she caught octo-cooties.

“I. I _**don’t**_ dance.” 

The awkwardness settling over the pair already became too much for the short agent. She cleared her throat, pushing her bangs from her face. “S-So turf? We can grab some breakfast when we leave ‘n stuff, like yesterday. We could probably buy some groceries too.” After all, they’d only eaten the leftover cereal at the bottom of the box. Not exactly a fitting meal for two people who were planning on running around for the better half of the day. 

“Groceries?” That was a new one. There were so many odd words in the Inkling language. It sounded like-

“Yeah, like. Food. Food to keep here so we can make our own meals and stuff. But that’s not important, what IS important is that you got your first ever turf war coming up. I’m gonna go get dressed and then we can head out.” 

Alone time was definitely needed. It wouldn’t be for long, but just a few minutes to be alone with her thoughts so she could rub that stupid green blush off of her face. Though that left the Octoling alone in the living room, the lively music track felt more like a depressing blues song by this point. So many questions littered the Octoling’s head. Had she done something wrong? It’s not like she expected Three to be a world champion dancer or anything. She just wanted to have some fun with her. Horizontal pupils flickered down to her worn claws, gently slotting her fingers together. Three’s hands felt nice….

Taking a few steps towards the sofa, she slumped down onto the fluff mountain. Last night was one of- no- the _best_ sleep she’d ever had. Everything was so warm and cozy. It was a struggle even for her to get out of the little nest she’d created by tossing and turning. But damn it, that gull outside was so loud this morning. It was _begging_ to be the perfect gift. But was besides the point. Three did all of that for her. Why was she so content with giving her everything to literally any task she did, yet dancing freaked her out? Honestly, at this rate she felt like she’d never understand Inklings.They were just so different. Despite the knock back to her mood, a deep part of her swore one of these days she’d get Three to dance with her, no matter what it took. 

Both seemed a little more at ease after some warm food. Eight deciding then and there scrambled eggs were her _favourite_ surface food. A walk later, the two stood at the foot of the tower. The glaring screens and music playing from the speakers littered around were… More than a little nerve wracking. Inklings and Octolings stood around talking as if there _wasn’t_ music being blared right at them. Eight briefly wondered if they were just pretending to know what the other was saying to be polite or if they could actually hear each other. 

“So. You ready for your first turf war? You ready for one of the most exhilarating, scariest and fun-est times of your life? You ready for-”

Eight rolled her eyes, giving the other a nudge. “Yeeees. Yes. I’m ready.” 

“You remember everything I told you on the way here, right?” The two began to walk up the large centre platform, inktanks swinging behind them as the automatic doors parted. 

“It’s just covering the ground. How hard can it be?” She gave a shrug, brella held haphazardly with one claw. 

“There’s more to it than that!” 

At first, it was too dark to see. Her body quickly decided that all this darkness just _wouldn’t_ do as all of the rings on her tentacles and and a few on her skin lit up. A few other Octolings also had the same pretty light show going on and a few Inklings too, albeit nowhere near as bright. 

“How? It’s literally _just_ covering the ground and whoever covers the most wins, isn’t it?”

“You’re just breaking it down to the most basic stuff! There’s like flanking routes you gotta take into account and if you’re communicatin’ well with your whole team and- it’s so much more than just painting the ground. It’s hard to explain!” Hard to think when your turfing companion had just turned into a makeshift glowstick. A very pretty makeshift glowstick. Fuck. 

“Wow! That sounds literally _exactly_ like what I just said. Painting the ground.”

Three let out an odd noise as she pushed the green turfing door open, holding it for Eight to enter and following her in after as it clicked shut. 

“You’ll see in a second.” The Inkling muttered, rolling her eyes. Psh. Just painting the ground. As if! Turf wars were complicated as fuck! 

It didn’t take more than two minutes for the whole room to be filled up with excited sea creatures as Three turned to the newbie. “Alright, so. We’re gonna be blasted outta here in a few seconds when enough people join the room and be separated into teams. It’s pretty fancy teleporting tech and stuff, all high grade stuff. Whatever that means. But just try not to stress or panic because it can be a little-” 

“-Jarring.” Ok. That was faster than she thought it would be. Shaking excess ink off of her tentacles, Three squeezed the handle of her blaster. The once green now purple Inkling viewed what stage the two had been tossed into. Humpback Pumptrack. There was no stopping the slight grimace that slipped onto Three’s beak. Cod, did she hate this stage. 

“Alright Eight, you ready to-”

Glancing to the side to give a quick rundown to her new turfing teammates, her stomach dropped. Where was Eight?! If she wasn’t here then- oh. **Damn matchmaking!** Hopefully she’d be alright on her own. It was a little hard to shake off the concern about them being seperated but she had turf to cover, so no time to dwell on that now.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Eight was a little perplexed. Where on earth did Three go? Weren’t they supposed to be doing this together? And more important, this did _not_ look like a place to be fighting. Were they in the right venue? There seemed to be NO time to think about these questions though, that whistle must’ve been a signal to start since everyone had since deserted spawn. The newbie quickly followed suit, Splatbrella in hand as she dashed off. 

Honestly, this was a pretty normal turfing match by Three’s standards. Catching a few members of the other team off guard around several corners was par for the course as a blaster main. Though after a particularly messy scrap with a rather obnoxious inkbrush, Three noticed, once she’d respawned, that the left track right off spawn wasn’t even inked!

“Ink base you fucking heathens”, she mumbled under her breath. Leaping down and beginning to cover in short quick blasts, her eyes caught sight of a familiar set of gear. Said known cephalopod’s back was turned as she tossed a sprinkler over near the centre platform before inking a path ahead of her. 

_Be nice to her Three, it’s her first turf war. I know that urge to compeltley destroy her is hard to push down but don't be a dick... Maybe you can give her a spook. She don’t look all that inked up, so maybe fire a warning shot? Yeah. Yeah good plan, Three! Show her you're the king of the battlefield without actually splatting her!_

Being as sneaky as she could, the Agent made a messy trail to sneak up to the moving Octoling; who seemed clearly focused on covering turf more than anything else. Holding the weapon out, she fired a shot that was directed just to the right of her. Though to Three’s surprise Eight whipped around on one foot with her Brella wide open, blocking the blast completely. 

_Uh._

A glob of turquoise ink smacked her straight in the face before she could even register what was going on, forcing Three to stumble back before turning squid and swimming back the way she came. It was either that or get splatted by a god damn _Splatbrella._ Ha, no way in hell was that gonna happen. But alas, her hasty retreat was stopped as the tip of her mantle bonked something that forced her to turn kid. Where did all this ink come from? She covered this in purple just mere seconds ago! Oh.

A sprinkler? 

Taking the pathetic little machine out with one shot, she scoffed. That was a pretty useless attempt. She did not scoff, however, when a sudden thwack of ink hit the back of her jacket. 

“Hey!” Spinning around, the Inkling fired another blaster shot towards her attacker, only to jump back as a brella shield once again denied her shots. It was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the various, precise globs of ink Eight was dishing out as she was pushed back to base, all of that work to cover up that left trail gone as all of Three’s attempts to land a hit failed miserably. 

The last thing Three knew was a brella shield was now being fired her way, She would’ve just escaped to the side and gotten a decent shot on the now unprotected Eight but to her left was the railing and to her right was- oh. 

Before she knew what hit her Eight had skidded to the left of the Inkling; preventing all forms of escape (unless she wanted to stumble backwards into a wall). 

“Oh motherfuck-” Two precise shots and she was down for the count; already heading back to spawn with a satisfied Eight taking off towards the middle hump. 

_What just happened?_

As her form was built back up by the respawn pad, Three had to take a second to understand what exactly just went down. How had Eight trapped her so easily? She was S rank for fucks sake! What was up with that! And why was she blushing so hard?!

Shaking her head, the Inkling threw herself back into the frey, eager to hunt Eight back down and return the not so wanted favour. By the time the match was over, Three was a flustered agitated mess as she stared at the scoreboard with a sour expression. Her Octoling compadre was sitting at the top of the leaderboard with an impressive 2110p and a decent five splats. Two of which were Three.

Buzzing with energy, Eight approached the less than pleased Inkling glaring at the results. 

“Wow- Wow! Ok! That was actually really fun! I got top of the board too, is that good? Or?” 

“Yeah, you- mhm. You did _great._ ” Trying not to let her salty, competitive attitude get the better of her and failing completely, Three offered Eight a rather passive aggressive smile. “Really. Great.” 

“Can we play again?” 

The sour feeling that ran through the Agent were melted at the moment she made eye contact with the excited Octoling, claws gripping her Splatbrella as she waited for a response. 

“You don’t need to ask me but-” 

“I don’t wanna play _without_ you, Three. Who else am I gunna use as target practice” As if it was some kind of obvious statement, Eight added an eye roll to the end of her words, before smiling down at the shorter cephalopod.

Oh? Oohohoh. That was _NOT_ something she could turn away from. And yes, maybe the others words beforehand were getting to her a little but a challenge like that? Yeah, no they were playing again. "You are fucking ON. C'mon." The two began heading back to the lobby to find a new match. It was impossible to shake the warm feeling inside of her. Three would just pass it off as a little competitive excitement. 

Time ticked on as the two turfed the day away. Three couldn’t remember the last time she’d turfed this long in a single session, let alone the last time she’d had this fun. Much to her own surprise her and Eight made a pretty good team. Since the Octoling was more focused on ground coverage and Three was… Being Three, the two made quite the scary combination. Though being against each other sparked quite the competitive edge for the Inkling; gone was the urge to go easy and introduce the Octoling to the most popular Inking hobby and here was the urge to one up the girl at her own game. Which often ended in Three’s own demise. 

Grabbing shakes from Sean’s truck was the final stop of the day. Much to Three’s surprise, he remembered her. The added ego boost, much to Eight’s displeasure, was knocked back pretty quick by the Octoling’s teasing. 

“So-” Whatever Three was going to say was cut off by Eight crunching into one of the smaller meals Sean had to offer. Three had to more or less pull her attention away from the Galactic Shwaffle.

“You think you’re ready for Splatfest then?”

Orange eyes lit up at the question as the taller wiped her mouth free of crumbs. “Mhm! We’ll totally crush ‘em!” 

“Hoooold up-” Three raised a hand, taking a particularly loud sip of her drink. Seeing Eight’s rounded ear twitch in irritation at the sound made her honestly want to do it more. “Who said we’re gonna be on the same team! Splatfest’s have choices and we might not even agree on whatever they toss out!” 

“Hmn… You’re right, You have _terrible_ tastes.” 

Three prompt choked on her drink.

“EH-HUrk. Hrm. H-Hey! I have fantastic tastes. Fucking _great_ tastes.”

“Mhmm. Whatever helps you sleep.”

“You know what does help me sleep?” Eight’s raised eyebrow managed to do exactly what she aimed for, ruffle Three more. “People who appreciate and know my tastes are fucking amazing.”

“Oh, I’m sorry… Insomnia’s gotta be rough, huh?” 

A badly timed sip left Eight in stitches as she choked on her drink. The look Three shot only caused her to snort in laughter, having to take a moment as she then began to vigorously cough. To Eight, this was god damn _hilarious._ To Three, it was the opposite for a number of reasons. For one, Teasing Three Daily was a thing she definitely wasn’t too keen on getting used to and two. Oh my cod is Eight choking? 

Her brain really wasn’t in the right place for this as she raised a hand, about to deliver quite a hearty smack to the Octoling’s back before remember that that was a _very very_ _**very**_ bad thing to do. Hand just shy of actually touching the others shirt, she awkwardly moved her hand up to pat her shoulder gently. That was entirely too close. 

“Y-You good?” she managed to ask, shaking hand yanked away to hide in shame inside her pocket. Cod… That could’ve really hurt Eight. She didn’t even… _Think._

“Guh- Yeah, yeah I’m great. H-ha… Sorry. Your face was just priceless! Hoo…” she breathed, trying to get some normality back into her lungs. “W-What’s the-” another pause to take a much needed, non hazardous sip of her drink. “Splatfest choice, anyways? Pearl and Marina didn’t really get a chance to tell me.” 

“Oh, the voting board ain’t even out in the square yet and even then it’ll probably be later this month. That’s how they always work.” _Used to work._ Three wasn’t sure if anything had changed. “Who knows what it could be, we had some pretty wild ones back in the days where specials weren’t pacified down to their most basic state.” Yeah. She was still salty about that. What of it?

“I hope it's a good choice.” The Octoling stretched her legs out, before raising her arms above her head, a small trill leaving her beak as she stretched. 

“Yeah, can’t go lower than Sandcastle vs Snowman.” She chuckled lowly, leaning against the tower in a more relaxed position. 

Well! To Eight that sounded rather interesting considering she had zero fucking idea what either of those things were! 

“Did you enjoy Splatfests?” Something was needed to get her off of that winding thought trail of how a man could be made out of whatever the hell snow was. 

“Hell **YEAH.** I did. Man, I still remember waiting every month for that special news announcement. No matter the theme, t’was always a good, hard earned fight. Sometimes… Maybe like, 40% of the time. Maybe.” Specific salt-coated memories were coming back to her at breakneck pace. Ha. Who even _likes_ rollercoasters anyways. “But it was always unpredictable, Lemme tell you about my first splatfest-” 

 

* * *

Whatever Three was expecting for a Splatfest choice. This was not it. Yes, she’d lived through some lousy Splatfest choices in her days and _**yes**_ she was never too fond of the most recent ones, some were downright pathetic in her eyes. But… _**But.**_

“What the fuck kind of Splatfest choice is this?!” 

Who in the goddamn fuck thought a splatfest about orange juice was a good idea. Who. Because whoever it was, Three would love to meet them. Give them a talking to. One on one. With her fist. 

“What’s pulp?”

Eight’s consistent prying and badgering to Pearl and Marina to try and get an early peek at the Splatfest choices proved to end in consistent failure. They seemed pretty secretive about the whole thing and at first Three was pretty sure it was because it was their job and what not. Now she was positive it was because this choice was literal garbage. 

“It’s like-” Cod, she was so mad right now she couldn’t even speak right. “Smushing up an orange inside orange juice. It makes it worse. It’s just- bad. There isn’t even a choice here!” 

It’d be a few steady weeks since Eight had started living topside. Nearly a month now. She’d discovered a love for the sun pretty quickly, wanting to be out and about more than Three was really comfortable with and birds. Don’t even start Three on Eight’s weird obsession with those feathered pests. Always wanting to feed and touch them. They walked past a pet shop literally once and ended up spending nearly 3 hours in there looking at just _birds._

But avians weren’t exactly the topic here. Yes, orange juice had been taste tested in this household before and Eight liked it. Not as good as cherry flavoured stuff, mind you. It was okay. 

“Weeell. I’ve tried orange juice, that was cool. But I’ve never had pulp! Can I try some? I wanna make sure I’m making the right choice.” 

“Uugghh… I don’t want pulp in my houseeee.” She whined. “Don’t you trust my orange juice judgement?” 

“Three I saw you dip toast into orange juice once. I don’t trust ANY of your orange related decisions.” 

“I WAS CURIOUS!” 

“You fascinate and disgust me almost every single day, Three. It’s kind of a miracle.” Eight poked her tongue out, much to Three’s displeasure. 

“Y’know if I wasn’t so comfy, I would punch you right now.” She replied. The ‘Fuck Off, Don’t Disturb Me’ blanket nest she’d rolled herself up into last night clearly wasn’t constructed well enough to keep Eight away. A slight shift and snuggle caused her to slump downwards against her pillow, pulling the blankets towards her face.

An eye roll quickly followed suit as she felt Eight flop across the end of her bed. The idea of investing in a lock for this room was becoming more and more practical by the second. Then again. Knowing how she was, the idea of forgetting she even HAD a lock installed in the middle of the night was an unpleasant thought with several different outcomes. The agent shuddered just thinking about it. 

“Sooo… can we go buy some?”

“Mn.. Comfy.”

“Threeee…” 

“Tired.”

“Aaaaagent Threeee” 

Eight huffed when the only response she seemingly got was Three turning over and tugging the blankets over her head. Well! Two can play at that game! 

Shifting into her swimming form and as carefully one could with now eight very lively limbs the treck to pull herself on top of Three before she realised what was happening was afoot. This… Might’ve been a bad idea in hindsight. It wasn’t like swimming forms, especially Eight’s, were small. But still! If Three was gonna be a stick in the mud, she was going to fish her out. Literally! 

Seated comfortable as one could be while in such an odd form, Eight shifted her tentacles to slip beneath the covers. The half baked idea was only supposed to give Three a jump or just get her to move in general. What Eight did _not_ expect was for Three to more or less launch herself off of the side of the bed with a yelp. 

“OH MY COD WHAT IS THAT?! IS THAT A ROACH? WHAT IS T- _ **AUGH!**_ ”

There was so many other ways this morning could’ve gone. So many other ways. Yet here both Cephalopods were, trying to get their bearings and understand what the hell just happened. Since Eight was positioned on the others back, when Three had rolled over with the speed of a swim speed stacking Sploosh-o-matic, she was tossed half way across the room; knocking several objects off the nearby dresser. Unable to secure a position on whatever was on top with her tentacles ,she was sent tumbling down the back with a gurgled yelp. Three, on the other hand, had just hit the floor rather heavily and was taking a moment to return spiritually to her body because _fucking ow?_

By the time Three had sat up, holding her head in pain, the sound of something rattling behind her dresser was becoming harder and harder to ignore. Moving to stand up and having a hand placed on the bed so she didn’t fall back over again, her groggy expression switched to one of confusion as she saw three pink tentacles reaching out from behind her dresser. Hmn.

Peering over the back, she was met with the eyes of a seemingly embarrassed Octoling, now frozen in place. It was honestly hard to keep a smirk down, Three’s facade shattering a moment later as she snorted. “Need a hand?” 

“Yeah- hup- please. That’d be great.” 

A few seconds of tugging quickly freed the Octoling. Three now had an arm full of Octarian and was unsure what exactly to do about it. 

“You were stuck down there tight, huh?” She let out an odd chuffing noise, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. Why was Eight coiling her arms so tightly. Why did she _still_ look cute in this form. What the fuck!! 

“It was a tight space! Also extremely dusty!” 

“Hey, I got you out of there quickly didn’t I?” The slight panic induced fluster was causing the agent to do what she did best. Run her mouth. 

“Hmmn. I guess that’s true. _My_ oh _My_ Three, whatever would I do without you, my hero~” The bundle of lively limbs in her arms cooed playfully. 

Now, If Eight was currently thinking straight she would’ve known to just wait until Three set her down to switch back to her larger form but against literally everyone in the rooms better judgement her brain decided that now was a perfect time to do such a thing. Leaving Three with now an arm full of a slightly taller, slightly bigger Octopus. Making sure she didn’t immediately fall, Eight’s arm linked around the Inklings neck- which in turn only caused Three’s face to turn an even darker shade of green. Physical contact was fucking weird and honestly too much for it being this early in the morning. 

Eight hit the floor a moment later.

“H-hey! Ow! Three! What was that for!” 

“Yer heavy” was all she could mutter, hunching shoulders. Three was more than slightly disappointed when she realised she didn’t have a specific collar to shove her face into.  
Standing and brushing herself down, Eight frowned. “You totally owe me pulp after this. That fucking hurt!” 

“Don’t say I owe you pulp! I owe you something but no one should be owed that trash.”

“You owe me a trip to go get pulp. Now go get dressed!” 

Begrudgingly, against her wishes, Three did as she was asked. She didn’t think this morning could get any worse than her literally dropping Eight because her stupid lesbian brain couldn’t handle any kind of literal contact and was generally useless and pointless. 

But oh how wrong she was when the words. “I actually like this more than normal orange juice. I like this pulp stuff!” came from Eight’s beak. It really was gonna be one of those days wasn’t it?

After such a _disappointing_ outcome, the two headed to the voting booth in the square. The Agent was more or less dragged there against her will since Eight wanted to vote as soon as possible, immediately slamming her hand down on the team pulp button with a grin. Three grimaced. How could she _like_ that shit? It was so gross! 

Her hand hovered over the no pulp button momentarily. But… This was Eight’s first splatfest. Sending her off into solo que alone in during fest hours caused a knot of guilt to twist in Three’s chest. After what seemed like a few seconds (five minutes) of inner turmoil, Three followed suite with Eight’s _awful stupid_ choice with a sigh. 

Feeling a curious expression weigh her down, she huffed, glancing over to Eight with a scowl as she grabbed her Splatfest tee from the appropriate basket left near the voting booth. “I don’t like pulp.” was all she said, trying to avoid the ever growing smirk on the Octoling’s face.

“So why’d you-”

“Pulp won’t _win_ , Eight. No one likes that stuff, you’re like a goddamn alien for liking pulp.”

“Wait, you’re not gonna… Sabotage this a-” 

“N-No! Do I look like someone who’d sabotage a splatfest!?” They were a sacred Inkling Tradition at this point! At least for the Inklings that grew up in Inkopolis… Or the ones that watched the event on TV. Same thing. “Don’t answer that.” 

Okay. That all knowing grin on Eight’s face was becoming unbearable. Three turning her head away from the other only to jolt as she felt arms wrap around her in a tight embrace. 

“Awwwww!! Three!! You shouldn’t have!!! You big idiot, mmm!” _Ha! Three was hers now!! In her grip!! Hug time, you stinky Inkling!_

“Pulps not- hnf- Gonna WIN!” was all she got out before Eight let go, left ear twitching in distaste as Eight chuckled. 

“Oh really?~” 

Three knew that tone. Three knew that tone. Memories to a few weeks back laced her mind. It was Sunday. 3:44pm. They’d just had lunch and Three had decided to introduce Eight to a fucking staple of video games between… _Acquaintances._ A karting game for the ages that would often soil, strengthen and more often than not do both to any relationship. It’d started off innocent, letting Eight learn the controls and all, give her a fair chance. The stakes were raised almost immediately after the first few matches. 

_“Oh please, you’d never beat me at Coconut Mall. I grew up on that stage, Eight.”_

__

__

_“Oh really?~”_ “

 _“Yeah really.”_ “

_“Alrightie then, how about a little wager!”_

Three recalled her attention being grabbed by this.

_“I’m listening.”_

__

__

_“If I beat you at whatever this Coconut Mall thingie is. I get to wear your cape for a week.”_ “

“ _“What?! N-No. S-She uh- It’s my CAPE, Eight! A-And besides whats in this for me if I win?”_ “

 _““I was gonna say I promise not to sneak eat cereal in the middle of the night again b-”_ “ 

_“AHAHA!! SO THAT WAS YOU!”_ “

 _“But as raining champion of Coconut Mall, surely it would be a huge blow to your kart racing pride if a newbie took that from you~”_ “

_“... Pass me the controller and prepare to have your ass thoroughly beaten, Eight.”_

To say the least, Eight got to enjoy a week of cool, awesome cape action. And Three was still sour about it. 

“Are you so sure about that? We could win!” 

“Yeah, the day sea slugs fly!” 

“Hmn. Okay. If you’re so sure, how about a wager. If pulp wins, then you have to take a proper shower. No in and out nonsense, like a proper actual shower aaand if I lose… hmn.” 

“If you lose you gotta STOP eating eggs raw, Eight!” 

The Octoling pouted. “But… Crunchy…” 

“Is the bet on or not?” 

“Hhn… Fine, fine.” A clawed hand gripped Three’s own as the two shook on it, Eight still looking slightly disgruntled over the whole egg fiasco. 

“I’m not saying you can’t eat eggs anymore! Just don’t eat them raw and whole like you did before! You can get sick from that, you idiot.” 

“You’re just a coward for not eating them with the skin on.”

 

* * *

Splatfest was drawing pretty near, tomorrow evening in fact. Eight had promised not to stay up too late watching whatever the hell she watched on her phone. It’d become a common occurrence for Three to head out into the kitchen to grab something to drink and find Eight still awake. Tomorrow night was probably going to be different. She wanted to make sure she was well rested. 

It was odd, to Three at least, when she woke up in the middle of the night. Fumbling around to slap her phone, she grumbled when the noise of it hitting the floor reached her ears. Stupid thing. It took a moment of pawing around but she managed to hook it up off of the floor and towards her- forgetting that turning a phone in the middle of the night was like taking a trip to the fucking sun. Her eyes were decidedly not thanking her.

It took a second for her blurry vision to even understand the numbers in front of her. What was that? A two? No. Uhh. 3:32AM. Yeah, not time for this particular Inkling to be in the waking world yet. More or less slam dunking her phone back onto her bedside table, Three followed suit by faceplanting downwards into her pillow. ... Wait. 

God damn it, now she was thirsty. A soft growl left her throat as she shuffled to sit up and rub at her face. It took a few seconds for her to finally leave her warm blanket nest and stumble out in a stupor towards the door. A moment later, she was searching for a cup in one of the cupboards above, gaze drifting over to the sofa. There wasn’t a light on when she got out here, so she figured Eight must be asleep and paid no mind. After all, she was a thirsty girl on a quenching mission. Though now that she’d gotten a good look at the Octoling’s makeshift bed, her head tilted, finally grabbed the glass she was aiming for and setting it down. 

“Eight?” she took a step closer, tilting her head. Eight was hunched over, little speckles all over her skin lighting up in a dull pinkish color, the few bright blue rings that dotted her skin were the brightest out of the bunch while the ones on her tentacles stayed at a not too eyesearing pink glow. Her head was lowered, arms covering her face. 

“... Did you eat another raw egg again? I told you that shit’s gonna make you sick, dude! Fuckin’ christ, Eig-” It quickly became apparent to the now much more awake Three this was _not_ a stomach ache. 

“Eight?” Three’s voice quivered as she spoke, but at least that seemed to get the Octarian’s attention. The Inkling was a little spooked at first, momentarily forgetting Eight’s eyeshine. “You good?” 

The bioluminescence made Three’s job easier to find out what was going on. Tear streaks coated the Octolings face as she looked up at the other. A moment later, she finally reacted, all of which pointed to signs of not being good. Taking another couple of steps, she found herself standing rather close to the Octoling. 

“D-Don’t!”, was the first thing that left her mouth, a clawed hand moving to touch Three’s chest, shoving her away with effort. Three barely budged but complied with her efforts and stepped backwards; though now utterly confused. 

“Don’t… What?” 

“Please don’t do it again!” Three’s ears pinged upwards at Eights now raised voice, scrambling forward to hold a hand over her mouth. 

“Hey! Shh!! It’s late, you don’t gotta yell, I’m right here!” 

Three didn’t even get a second to react. She wasn’t even holding her hand that hard over Eight’s mouth, more just gently cupping it. Yet the next thing she knew was sharp claws dragging across her cheek in an odd combination of a slap and scratch all in one. To say the least, it stung. 

A calloused hand was raised to cup where she’d been struck. Huh… It wasn’t anything too serious, but that was blood alright. The already panicked Octoling felt a wave of trepidation slam into her, moving to press her back against the sofa as her ears flattened downwards against her head.

“D-Don’t!” 

“Eight. Hey.” 

“ **DON’T.** ”

“C’mon… What’s wrong?” 

A step closer seemed to be the wrong thing to do, as Eight shot upwards from where she was sitting, pushing Three aside in a panic. It was like watching a small animal be confined by a cage, yet Eight had plenty of space around her. It was an open, empty room. Granted, it was dark but Three was sure she had no issue with finding her way around. Yet she still looked trapped.

“Just.” The Inkling swallowed thickly as bright eyes turned to face her before Eight took another step back. “Calm down, okay? You’re fine. You’re good. Everything’s alright.” Taking another step forward with her hands out, the sound that left Eight twisted all three of the agents hearts into guilt ridden knots. 

“D-Don’t throw anymore!” What? “P- _Please…_ ” The stangled plea left Three with zero idea on what to do here. 

Any option seemed to be bad in her head at this point. She’d never seen Eight so terrified, yet the exact look the Octoling had felt sickeningly familiar. 

“Eight.” Another whine left the Octoling at her name being spoken, she scrambled back once again. Three took another step forward.

“It’s alright, yeah? Look. We’re at home. You’re at home.” Each step taken was another awkward scramble backwards for each party until Eight finally ran out of places to shuffle back too. Her back hit the wall and she let out of a sob, her breathing out of sync, as if she hadn’t taken a proper breath in days. It was gut wrenching. Three decided right then and there she never wanted to see Eight like this again.

The second attempt to calm her down had Three kneel to her level, but it seemed that was far too much for the other. Her claws gripped the carpet as she pushed herself off from the wall and dashed past the other in a frantic attempt to get anywhere that Three wasn’t. It ended up with her standing in the middle of the room turning in circles. 

It was probably a weird idea. Three knew it was a weird idea. But only one thing was currently in her brain as a possible solution to this. It might’ve been because she was tired, or maybe seeing Eight in such a state flicked a switch on somewhere inside her brain, but a move was finally made. With the other standing more or less blindly out in the open turning around and around, the comforter was snatched from the nearby sofa and tossed over Eight. The spinning had stopped for now at least, though now a very stressed, blanket covered Octopus was standing in the middle of her living room. 

Soft, shallow breaths were at least a sign that she was still… _Here?_ Unsure what that meant, Eight was approached once more. 

“Hey. Eight…”

The mention of her name caused the pile of blankets to shift. 

“I’m gonna- like. I’m going to touch you okay? Don’t freak out.” 

Hands softly gripped the outside of the comforter in where she figured Eight’s sides were. “It’s me. It’s Three. The Inkling with the fucked up ear and the one you love to piss off.” Nothing about the tone of her voice said ‘Agent Three’ anymore. It was laced with fear and concern, a rarity for the Agent to show one, let alone both at the same time. 

“That’s the only person in this room, no one else. We’re at home. It’s like… Late at night. You’re safe. Promise ya, nothing on my watch will happen to you in this house. O-Or happen to you in general for that matter.”

Those laboured breaths seemed to have calmed for the moment. Good. 

“Do you wanna sit down?” 

An odd dip in the fabric that Three could only identify as a slight nod set the two on the floor with their backs pressed against the sofa. It was nigh impossible to tell if the current silence was stifling or comforting but one thing the Agent knew was that the concept of her even bothering to return to her own quarters tonight were completely squished. Like _hell_ was she leaving Eight out here on her own. Fuck that nonsense. 

By the time Eight’s face had poked out from the mess of blankets, the sun was starting its trek up into the sky. How long had it been? How long had they just been… Sitting here? More questions that’d never get proper answered piled up in Three’s head. Weary as she was, the other still had her full attention (or whatever was left of it) the moment she’d peeked out from the comforter. 

“Feeling any better?” She grimaced slightly at the sound of her own rough voice, Eight seemed to feel the same judging by expression. 

“Mhm…” 

The silence returned for the next few minutes or so before Eight spoke up once more.

“I’m sorry.” 

“Psh. For what? You didn’t do anything wrong?” 

It’d felt like an eternity since the two had made any sort of eye contact. Both had their reasons to avoid such an uncomfortable thing. But here they were, staring right at each other. 

“Your cheek, Three! I scratched that all up...” 

“Okay, to be fair, I probably deserved that.” A tired chuckle left her beak. Eight couldn’t place a claw on why that made her feel much more at ease, but it certainly did. “Lets just say we’re even now.” 

“Does it look cool?” 

“Ehhh… You have cooler scars elsewhere.” 

“Oh? Pray tell, what’s my coolest scar then?” 

There it was. That usual love to hate feeling Three despised was back again, if she wasn’t so tired she could potentially pinpoint the reason for said feeling being the other girls pretty smile that accompanied her laugh. _Potentially._ That might be giving her a little too much credit. 

“I think your lil’ ear notch is like. A trademark at this point. Check it-” Tugging the right side of the comforter down, Eight’s ear perked up from behind her front tentacles, figuring that might be a little hard to see she brushed it behind, showing off her own trademark notch. “I got a notch just like it but on the bottom. We match!” 

"You should keep your tentacles like that, by the way. It suits you." Three halfheartedly mumbled, not really awake for all of this but apparently awake for her brain to want to start spitting out random thoughts. What a potentially dangerous position she was in right now. 

"Okay, but isn't it kinda cool we have matching ear notches?"

“Kinda?... This is like the worlds’ most fucked up pair of tattoos or something.” 

The two both chuckled at the idea. It was like some kind of morbid friendship bracelet yet it still warmed Three’s inside up. Eight seemed to have a case of the morning shudders as well judging by often the comforter was shifting. The quiet back and forth conversation continued until the sun was filtering through the blinds of the apartment. Another reminder to fix those came in the form of the sun nearly blinding the Agent during a conversation about why hot chocolate was the king of all drinks. 

Where were they again? Oh right!

“So you’ve never had hot chocolate before?” 

“Three, you’ve known me for my entire time topside and given me all the food I currently know to this day. So no, you haven’t briefed me on the wonder of whatever hot chocolate is.” 

_How could chocolate be HOT anyways?_

“But uh, Three, I wanted to-” An odd noise left Eight’s throat as she realised the Inkling sitting beside her was suddenly gone. Was it the fact that she’d barely slept? Was it the fact that she had in fact hallucinated everything up until this point and was about to wake up in a freezing cold dome with the ceiling dripping down onto her face and-

Oh wait, no. Nevermind. Three was over there.

“You’re lucky I have a sixth sense or whatever the fuck you call it!”, came the Inkling’s voice from the kitchen. “‘Cause I got some right here. Last time we went to grab groceries I grabbed ‘em.” 

The fake gasp from across the room made Three’s ears perk. “You bought food and you didn’t tell me about it!” 

“It’s not food, for one, its a drink and secondly”, Three held a tiny packet upwards so the other could see, waggling it back and forth. “You want to eat this?” 

“Uh. Duh.” 

An eye roll later, the Agent returned a moment later with two mugs. She issued a warning to the Octoling that it was _hot and she should be _careful_ and then began to promptly drink her own words by burning her mouth. Eight seemed to like it at least, at least from what the tired Inkling could see. Perked ears and a warm smile blooming over her face as she curled up A soft hum left her beak as she took another soft sip. A comfortable silence washed over the two as they leant against the sofa. _

__

As blissful as this was, something was starting to pick at Three. The more she left her mind wander, the louder the question got. It took a moment of two building up extra confidence she really didn’t have before placing her mug down. “Hey, Eight?” 

The Octoling’s ears twitched. Three’s voice was as soft as a spider, nothing like what she’d grown accustomed too during these past few weeks. It was an odd thing to hear her like that, but it definitely wasn’t unwelcome. 

“So. If you don’t mind me being nosy ‘n all. What was, uh, what was all that about? Did something happen? Did, uh, I do something?” 

“Oh! Nononono!” Eight raised a clawed hand, shaking her head. “It wasn’t you, honest!” 

“Now you don’t gotta talk about it or anythin’ but if I did something wrong I’d prefer to know so _I_ don’t do it again.” The frightened tone of Eight’s terrified voice still rang fresh in her mind. It’d been a solid couple of hours at least. It was going to take a lot more than that to erase it. 

Claws tapped against the ceramic of the mug as Eight glanced away. As tired as she was, Three could still hear a steady rhythm being applied to the mug. Cute. A usual avid avoider of eye contact, Three stood her ground as Eight glanced back over to each other. Her horizontal pupils seemed to shift left and right before she finally sighed. That warm feeling from earlier was turning more frigid by the moment.

“I don’t really know how to describe it. I was just sleeping and, uh. What’s the word for like. Uhm. Being awake while asleep and weird things happen?” 

“Pretty sure that’s called a dream.” 

“A dream? Huh.” That was vastly different from the Octarian term.

“Though, from where you seem to be going with this it sounds more like a nightmare.” 

Nightmare. Hmn. Eight decided that was a word she absolutely did not like! At all!! The way it rolled off of the tongue felt bad and rough. 

“A nightmare. Right. Well I was having one of those and it was loud, and dark, but also light? A lot of flashing colors. There was this specific song too. I know it, I just don’t know the name. I’ve heard it before. It was like attaching a jumper cable to my veins and ink sack. It was the most tilting feeling I think I’ve ever felt. But then uh... I don’t know. A lot of things kept happening. I was in like… A small box?” She began to make a shape with her hands to demonstrate. “And you. _You_ were there, and you uh. You weren’t exactly all that happy to see me I don’t think.”

Without even subconsciously registering, Three had shifted closer, attention clearly won over by all of this. Eight swallowed thickly as she continued.

“And you were like. Relentless. It was just attack after attack, special after special, bomb after bomb. I couldn’t catch a break.” A dry laugh escaped her. Just hearing that made Three’s skin crawl. 

“It was like you were dead set on making sure I didn’t make it out alive. I think that's why I was so freaked out. Y’know. Seeing some weird fucked up version of you trying to drag me down to the pits of hell and then waking up and seeing the real thing kinda spooked me! Pretty cowardly, I know.” 

Least to say, Three was a little tongue tied right. Mainly due to the fact of- What the _fuck?_ Was that how Eight perceived her? She really hoped not. 

“What? No. You just went through dream hell and back. If I woke up after having a dream about like some kinda weird ink snatcher and then I woke up and saw the real thing I’d pretty damn scared too! You are NOT a coward!” 

No way was Eight shooting herself down like that! Not in her house! Not on this morning! Not ever! 

“That doesn’t really justify me scratching you… I wanted to apologise for-” 

“Fuck the scratch!” Three had shifted even closer. Her tired eyes bore into Eight’s equally exhausted ones, a spark of frustration was hidden away between the mismatch colors. “That scratch means NOTHING. It’s just. A. _**Scratch.**_ It’ll heal. It’s not a big deal. The more important thing is if you’re feel okay now and-”

“Duh, I’m okay.” Eight interrupted, raising the mug to her lips. “I got this warm chocolate.” 

“ _Hot_ chocolate, and let me finish! I said it’s not big deal, I’ve had worse. You can see my ear notch, can’t you?” 

It was rather difficult to miss the sizeable chunk taken out of Three’s right ear, scarred and scabbed over in green. “And even then, if you did something worse than that, I wouldn’t _blame_ you, Eight, you were scared!” 

“Scratching your friends face isn’t something normal, Three! I hurt you!” 

“And I hurt you! Dream me hurt you! And I- friend?” 

“What else am I supposed to call you?” 

That was a good point. The two had been spending quite the amount of time together. The usual social situations that would wear Three down to her core only seemed to boost her energy when done with Eight. Three was the master at overthinking. Turning the oven dial just a smidge over where it was supposed to be cook frozen pizza? Well hot damn, now she was sitting there overthinking about how that could blow up her entire apartment! Can’t find her phone? Well, clearly some mastermind criminal had broken into her home, stolen it and was now uploading important Agent documents that she totally had on her phone. Absolutely. Case in point, but with Eight, none of that really came up. Eight, if anything, was definitely a friend.

Boy, that was weird to finally say out loud in her own little headspace. 

“Okay, Fair point. But still, mistakes happen, Y’know? I ain’t gonna hold a grudge against you for this. Hell, that's sorta the point of friendship. Fixing things and workin’ through shit that you potentially may or may not have caused and still remaining friends.” At least, that's what she figured was right. Three wasn’t exactly the the kind of person to be buried in loving friends. 

Judging by the Octoling’s expression, Eight was deep in thought for the moment. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. Still. I want to apologise for hurting you. “ 

Three scoffed, swatting at the air with a hand. “Y’aint got nothing to apologise for, Eight. C’mon. Don’t waste hot chocolate by turning it into cold chocolate. That’s gross.”

“Don’t tempt me.” There it was. That teasing voice, the hints at that obnoxious grin returning to Eight’s face. It was fully restored when Eight caught a glance of the unamused scowl of the Inkling beside her.

Staying on that topic any longer was not on her to do list today. It felt weird and wonderful and odd to acknowledge the fact that the Octoling sitting next to her was now her friend and no longer just some weird roommate assigned to her by the World's Worst Grandpa, Capp’n Cuttlefuck. But, speaking of her to do list… 

After a particularly loud slurp once she reclaimed her drink, Three decided now of all times would be a good time to ask. “You still up for splatfest tonight?” 

“Three, is that even a question?” 

“Well, we haven’t slept and-” 

A hand snaked around her arm, gripping it tightly, Three’s head whipping around so fast to face Eight that her tentacles could’ve knocked the mug out of her hand. Physical contact was and still is fucking weird! 

“I’m not missing this fest for the world, even if I have to do it sleep deprived.” The sheer amount of determination in Eight’s words, between her gaze and her grin, were a little daunting to say the least. It gave Three a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

A soft affirmative mumble was all Three could muster, but it seemed to be enough for Eight, returning to her small blanket nest with a soft chuff. Now, Three knew from experience that going to a Splatfest with anything under 5 hours of sleep was a death sentence. It was all fine and dandy till a match had to be called off because some poor sucker had passed on the lower part of Moray Towers and nearly got trampled before being dragged out. Three was struggling to keep her eyes open now! There was no way both of them were going to survive the fest in this condition. 

“Fest starts around eight pm. Maybe nine. They might’ve changed it, who fuckin’ knows at this point. If they can get rid of the Inkzooka, they can change just about anything.”, she shrugged as she looked over to the other. Both of them looked pretty rough in terms of sleep. “We should probably try ‘n get some kinda sleep beforehand. Fests-” A yawn interrupted whatever Three was going to say she groaned. “Fest’s are a nightmare without at least some shuteye.” 

“Oh, so you wanna go back to your room and sleep?” 

“What?! Cod no. I’m staying out here with you!” Three raised her voice in a matter-of-factly way before downing the last drops of her drink and wiping her chin. “I don’t know when you’re plannin’ to sleep but. Make sure ya get some soon ok? I’ll be right back.” 

Leaving Eight to her own devices for a moment, Three placed the mug (even though a slight voice in her head told her to try and toss it across the kitchen and land it in the sink. Cool as that would’ve been to pull off, clearing up broken china didn’t sound like a fun thing to do right now. Or ever. Cleaning _sucked._ ) in the sink to be washed out later before heading back into her room. It took a bit of effort but the Inkling stumbled out a moment later holding more or less her entire bed minus the mattress.

The avalanche of comfort was upon Eight before she could even process what was happening, just barely rolling out of the way as Three plummeted down on top and groaned into the sheets. Cod. Even as just a mess on the floor, that shit was comfy. It took an extraordinary amount of energy to pry herself off of the top and set herself up around Eight, comforter over her head another yawn prying on her lips was stopped as the sound of the TV caught her attention.

“Whatcha watchin’?”, she mumbled softly. 

“Just whatever's on really. It’s super early so a lot of channels have really shitty content.”  
Pft! As if Eight knew what was she was talking about! Try being sick and staying up with your mom till the early hours of the morning. That was when the surreal shit came out! You can’t best the absolute late-night TV watcher at knowing watch channels were good, mediocre and absolute trash this early in the morning, Eight! Don’t even try! 

The choice between the two was some reruns of old cartoons, it was good background noise if anything. With the birds slowly beginning their morning songs to wake the rest of the world up, the two cephalopods head drooped simultaneously as sleep overtook the pair faster than they could’ve expected. 

 

* * *

**BANG.**

“Eiiiigggght. Stop hitting the door. I’ll be up in a minute.” 

**BANG BANG.**

“Eight. Seriously just like- five more minutes ‘n I’ll be up.” 

A loud snort made Three groan, trying to roll over from wherever the noise came from suddenly proving to be impossible. Wait, what? Why couldn’t she move?! Her eyes flung open in panic as she glanced around, lifting her head ever so slightly granted her access to view the darkened living room. The only real light was coming from outside the window as was the heavy, bass boosted beat. Eugh. What was that Off the Hook? Who was playing Off the Hook in her humble abode!? Oh, Right. Splatfest. 

With a grunt, Three attempted another sit up, only to flop back down. Why couldn’t she get up? Craning her neck back, the issue became apparent. There was an Octoling on top of her. Right.

 _THERE WAS AN OCTOLING ON TOP OF HER._

It wasn’t that she minded that Eight’s napping spot of choice was more or less across her back but. No, No. That was entirely the issue here. 

“E-Eight! Get off me, you’re gonna crush me!” 

All thoughts, any words the Inkling could’ve possibly wanted to spit out were halted by a loud shh coming from the cephalopod atop her, a hand awkwardly patting along the top of her head, against her nose before finally reaching what it wanted. One of her tentacles. Eight began to run her hand along it in an _almost soothing manor._

“Shshshhshh. Three, you’re… So loud let me sleep”, she mumbled, pulling her hand away and squirming trying to get more comfortable atop the squid. 

Three was fucking trained in the art of keeping a poker face up and working 24/7, all day every day. But training didn’t prepare her for a cute girl to be dozing right on top of her and it was becoming pretty hard to keep calm. Her face felt entirely too hot for her liking.

“EIGHT, THE SPLATFEST! DON’T YOU WANNA GET A MOVE ON AND MAYBE NOT _CRUSH ME?_ ”, she managed to shout, most likely more louder than she wanted it to be judging by the loud whine from her captor. It was the only thing she could think of to get her attention 

“Splatfest?.. Oh!” Two hands moved to suddenly press Three down into the carpet, slamming right into her back and keeping her secured down as Eight excitedly sat up. “C’MON THREE GET UP WE GOTTA GET READY!”

And just like that, Eight was up. She could hear the other excitedly rushing around to what she could only guess was getting ready but right now all she wanted to do was lay on the floor and block out that awful music. By the time she actually sat up, it took a minute for her eyes to adjust the dark once more. Not once did it occur to Eight to maybe turn on the lights? Geez. 

“Come ooon, Three. I know Inklings aren’t morning creatures or whatever but we’re gonna miss the entire ‘fest if your dumb ass doesn’t get a move on!” 

“You’re one to talk! You were passed out on top me like two minutes ago!” 

If she thought she was going to be given a moment to even stretch, Three was proved wrong very quickly. Eight was quickly showing that personal space was not something in her vocabulary having to more or less shove the other out of her room to get into her Splatfest Tee. The brief calm moment was appreciated but she knew the second she opened that door, the tornado of octopus outside would be in full force… Well. As the old Inkling proverb goes: … 

Three didn’t fucking remember. 

_Whatever. Let’s get this shitshow rolling._

With the door open, Eight’s posture from leaning against the wall had sprung up right as she moved in front of Three. Her preferred gear choice for tonight seemed to be the Black Fish Fry Bandanna and the Angry Rain Boots, a gift from Marina and Pearl that had _Three Pure Slots._ Which Three was just ever so slightly furious over. Days wasted over getting a perfect Quick Respawn shirt and here Eight was just being handed pure gear on a silver platter. Literally.

“You finally ready?” Eight smiled down at her, the low light from the dim apartment caused all of those little bio-speckles to start their display. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” 

Not as tornado-ish as Three originally thought. Hmn. The two gathered the rest of their gear, made sure everything was turned off. Much to Eight’s disappointment. Why was Three so slow!? The second the door was locked, that tornado warning in Three’s head was back in a flash. Not that she had time to really brief it as she was now being tugged towards a flight of stairs at a speed she absolutely could not keep up with. 

Not wanting her arm to be yanked off, Three turned squid in a quick moment of panic and latched onto the others arm as she raced down the stairs, the sound of the fireworks blocking out the loud sound of her steps as Three clung to her for dear life.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight gets to experience her first Splatfest hands on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Sorry for this taking so long! I recently had tooth surgery and its been super hectic this month ;; But I hope you enjoy this chapter! It was incredibly fun to write!

_I’m literally going to die here. This is it. She’s going to slam me against a lamppost or something if she doesn’t slow down. Marie always said I’d go out in a dumb way that’d probably be on the news but everyone's in the central square right now, so no one's gonna see this._

_Marie was always a liar anyways._

“Hey, you good now?”

“Guh… No.”

Whatever Eight expected as a response, it should've been obvious that she was going to get nothing but a negative answer and some kind of whiney noise to boot. 

“C’monnn! Get up off of the ground, you’re gonna have have these lil’ paper things stuck to you if you don’t!” 

Three felt claws wrap around one of her tentacles. Alas, Three did not care. She currently felt like she’d been tossed through a washing machine’s entire spin cycle. An odd part of her was pleased there was no Octobosses dead set on cleaning. 

Somewhere in Inkopolis, Agent Four felt a shudder wash over them.

“It’s called confetti… Get the name right.” She whined, ignoring the feeling of onlookers glancing at her and instead focusing on _not_ chucking her insides up on the pavement. 

“It’s just paper. It doesn’t need a special name! Stop trying to trick me into thinking paper has another name!” 

Another few seconds of Eight trying to tug the grounded Inkling and she let out a loud huff.

“If you were still tired you could’ve STAYED home.” 

“I’m not tired.” 

With a grunt, Three pushed herself to sit on her legs. Her companions expression completely shifting with the sight of movement. Finally.

“I was just dragged through the better half of Inkopolis by an insane Octoling, and now I feel like that hot chocolate is gonna be seen again real soon!” 

“Awh, c’mon, it wasn’t that bad!” 

“You got us lost! You ran down a dark alley and slammed into an anglerfish!”

“He was so nice though! He said sorry and everything! And I _got_ us here, didn’t I?”  
“You JUMPED over a dumpster and climbed a fence, EIGHT!” 

“I digress. I got us here.” 

Finally raising her head, Three got a good look at Eight standing in front of her, body turned slightly to show the large stage and flashing lights. Not to mention the huge crowd of all kinds of sea creatures below, all jumping and cheering in time with the music. Pearl and Marina were just barely seen from her position on the ground but she could tell they were there. Both were needlessly loud in their performance. She’d never understand how people could be into this type of music. 

Regardless of how much Eight whined about how long she was taking to stand up, the Inkling finally found her very wobbly land legs. A sigh leaving her nose as she glanced as slowly as one could over to the other cephalopod. Three couldn’t lie, seeing her so worked up over her leisurely movements was a treat within itself. 

“So. What you plannin’ on doing first?” 

“Uh duh, Turf? That’s the big thing for splatfest, right? I wanna make sure that Team Pulp wins this thing and that you take a shower.” 

“I don’t need a shower!” 

“Three, I haven’t seen shower since I got here. If anything, be grateful I’m trying to win for you!” 

“I don’t _need_ to shower! I’m fine!”

“You’re so gross.” 

And thus the trek into the excited crowd began, Three stumbling behind and just managing to keep track of Eight due to her stupid height. Dumbass. Who gave her the right to be so fucking tall anyways? The crowd wasn’t even that bad, as a veteran splatfest player, she’d dealt with worse. Yet for some odd reason so many people and the loud music was beginning to get to Three in a thousand ways that she couldn’t explain.

“Hey, Eight. Hold on a second.” 

Peering around curiously, Three was met with confused orange eyes. Even though lights lit up the venue, the odd spots of bioluminescence all over her skin and tentacles certainly did their job at being luminescent. 

“I-” Why did she stop again? Why did she stop Eight again? _Fuck._

“I don’t want to lose you in the crowd. Can you uh like- um.” Words. How do words again?

Three expected to be scoffed at and mocked. Lose her in the crowd? Eight wasn’t a squishie! Yet here the Octopus was, holding out a clawed hand with a soft smile. Calloused fingers rubbed together awkwardly for a few moments as Three offered nothing more than a stare at said hand before taking up the offer. 

“Nah, I was thinkin the same, this place is crazy!” Eight’s voice rang out over the noise as the two began to walk to the tower. “You’re not wearing your dumb Hi Vis so it’d be like. Impossible to locate you.” 

“It ain’t dumb!” It was pretty dumb. 

What felt like an honest to god lifetime quickly came to a close as the crowd parted to allow both through, stepping under the cover of the stage. A few stray turfers taking a break turned their heads at the newcomers, before going back to talking. Three briefly wondered if any of the Team Pulpers with drinks in hand were actually drinking the stuff. A shudder rippled down her back at the idea of sucking up pulp through a straw. Gross. 

This felt familiar enough by now. The few days they had before Splatfest was even announced were spent turfing the time away together. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself that much. As much as being a sore loser came hand in hand with being Three, she had to admit that Eight was incredibly good at turfing. Turns out not being a splat thirsty idiot and actually covering stuff _worked!_ Who knew! 

The first match ended up being just how the Agent liked it, a complete wipe. As was the second and third. Any hesitation, anxiety and remnants of motion sickness clinging to the agent were shedded within the first few minutes or so as she left Eight to cover ground. Their play styles being the complete polar opposites of each other seemed to actually blend together pretty nicely! Most matches were a 60 or over percent win! Three was feeling pretty good about this.

It was pretty good to chase down pathetic little Inklings who didn’t expect a good ol’ blaster to the face. Always a good time. Sour looks from her teammates did nothing to stop her good time. Like she gave any sort of fucks right now, she was having fun damn it!!

Until she wasn’t.

It was around the eleventh match that Three had finally met her maker; which happened to be a rather irritating pair of dapple dualies that seemed to have some kind of psychic ability to know where her shots were gonna land and dodge roll out of her blasters range in the nick of time. To say the least, it ruffled more of her feathers than planned. Gone was the concept of turfing and in was the idea of finding that dumb toothbrush wielding little pipsqueak and break their dumb guns in half. 

“ _ **What?!**_ How’d we lose?!” The board was broken. Judd was broken. _Something_ must’ve been broken. They were on a winning streak! No way did a pair of dapples just best her at her own game! How did they get more splats than her?! _What?!_

“What was up with that Luna Blaster?”

“I don’t know but holy fuck are they hot headed.”

It wasn’t Inkstrike science to tell they were talking about Three, and something about that made the tips of Eight’s tentacles curve and twist in frustration. Three could be mad if she wanted! That's what she did best! They didn’t know her nor did they have a right to judge her!

To her knowledge, she’d just flashed them a perhaps _vaguely_ threatening glare, but apparently Eight had caused the two gossiping cephalopods to fall quiet as a growl left her throat. Now that they were dealt with, a clawed hand was reached out to be placed on her shoulder in a hopefully sympathetic gesture. Man. Three was shorter than she remembered. Way shorter. Eight nearly toppled over with the amount she was stretching down to give potential head pats before realising; Where was Three?

“Hey! Dapples! C’mere a sec!” 

Ah. Oh no.

“Maybe if you used a weapon that required more than half a brain cell then it would’a been a fair match!!” 

Confused and puzzled looks were shot the raging Inklings way and unfortunately did nothing to halt her tantrum, it only seemed to fuel it. A hand was clapped over her mouth before she could _really_ start dishing out insults, muffled voice now being blocked out by the sound of everyone being transported back to the lobby.

If there was some sort of machine that measured how mad someone currently was, Three would’ve smashed it with her bare hands by now. Her silence spoke more words than Eight even knew at this point, slowly removing a hand away from the potentially explosive inkling’s beak. She wasn’t in the mood to find out how sharp Inkling teeth could be. Everyone from the last match had conveniently disappeared once back, the steadily moving orange lights around the empty lobby would have been something to admire, but neither were interested in doing so.

“Three.”

“Eight.”

Three turned on her heel, glaring daggers. 

“Why’d you _stop_ me. I wanted to rat that toothbrush usin’, cowardly, dumbass, C minus, dodge rollin-” 

“Three, c’mon. It’s only our first loss, you don’t need to get so… So. What was the word you used for it? Sugary?”

 _Fuck._ Wow was it was increasingly difficult to keep a scowl that intense in full force after that, Three’s bottom lip twitching slightly in a restrained smile. “Salty.”

“Exactly. You don’t need to be so huffy about it. It’s just one loss! And you don’t need to go insultin’ some random persons weapon! You-” Focused on her words, Three was taken aback as a loud breath of air left Eight’s nose in a huff. “I. heh. I’m sorry. I can’t take you-you seriously when you pull that face.”

Part of her felt _slightly_ bad for making fun of Three when she was clearly feeling heated from the tides of battle. _But only an extremely small part._ Something about that over exaggerated scowl with those squinted eyes seemed to tickle her nonexistent funny bone in more ways than one. A sudden shift to have a slightly offended brow tilt added to her overall look and Eight couldn’t handle it anymore. 

“S-Stop it! Stop-hahAHA- Stop look-looking at me like that! Oh my god, Three, you’re a treasure.” Wiping away a tear threatening to roll down her cheek, that usual cheeky full force grin was back in action. She couldn’t stay mad at that expression. “C’mon, let’s go grab you a drink or something.”

“What? No. I want to keep turfing!”

“Nu-huh. Not when you’re all huffy like that, c’mon.” 

The door opened with a woosh once the other was close enough too it, tinted claws being bent in a ‘come here’ motion. 

“No, Eight! I’m fine! Let’s just, H- **HEY!** ” 

Ah, the joys of being the taller; potentially stronger cephalopod. It took zero effort for Eight to pluck the other girl off of the ground, hands tucked gently under her arms as she yoinked the other upwards. The kicks, squirms and complaints seemingly falling on deaf ears as out came the pair back into the lively square. 

“Lemme go!!! Eight, I swear to cod, the second you put me down you’re gonna get it!” 

Suspicions arose that her fiesty friend was going to bolt straight back into the tower when placed down had Eight frozen for a moment. Several thoughts clouding her head as she promptly ignored whatever the other was saying and tried to figure out a plan of motion to get a squirming, kicking, salty squid through a hyperactive crowd. If anyone was glancing at her right now, it would almost seem like a tiny zapfish had popped above her head and sparked its whiskers together.

“Okay, hold still.” 

With the hope that her jaw wouldn’t receive a swift kick, as carefully as one could, Eight hoisted the other up to sit on her shoulders. A gentle pat was deliver to the legs now resting over her front as she headed into the fray of excited sealife. 

“You must have a pretty good view up there right? I’m sorta jealous!” 

“Hardly.” 

This was absolutely fucking degrading. And pointless. She could walk! What the fuck was Eight’s reasoning behind this, other than to just embarrass her further. Whatever. At least it didn’t take them long to reach the other side, the two taking refuge by the tables close to Crusty Sean’s food truck while she was returned to solid ground.

“See, that weren’t so bad was it? That was totally the best plan of action tooooh my cod.” 

Being so high up didn’t have any faults in Eight’s head, not until now. The now confetti coated Inkling folding her arms and that ever hilarious scowl returning to her features. Old ones and above, it was a mystery on how so much of the stuff had gotten stuck to her- but damn if it wasn’t hilarious. 

“S-Stay there, I’m gonna go grab us some drinks.”

“You brought _tickets_ with you?”

“Well, duh? We’re gonna be out here turfin' for a while, might as well put em to good use! Special Charge Shake, right?” 

The grunt that she got in response had her pouting.

“What you _don’t_ want a charge up shake? You want me to get you like a Mark-Shaker Cocoa or something?”

“Do I look like a fucking animal to you?”

“I mean-”

“Just get the drinks!” 

Slumping in one of the nearby metal chairs, Three began the chore of picking up most of the confetti pieces and flicking them to the floor. They’d won so many matches already. Why did one loss set her off so bad? It couldn’t have just been the dualies, right? No. As much as she disliked the weapon class, she wasn't usually that heated after one loss. Was it because Eight was on her team? The very notion seemed to bring heat to her cheeks. Bingo. 

“Hey! Ya dumb piece of sushi, I got your drink!” 

With a soft mumble that sounded vaguely like a thank you, Three began to slurp on her shake, ears perking at the cold taste. Yes, she may have just given herself brainfreeze and yes she was making a stupid face trying to make sure Eight didn’t realise she had brainfreeze and-

“Brainfreeze?”

Fuck.

“No.” 

“Try holding your nose, that usually works for me.” 

As if. She wasn’t doing that. 

“You still wanna turf right?”

“Duh? I spent tickets on these for a reason!!” 

“You don’t even care about pure gear!”

“Sean does good stuff! And you needed a breather anyways.” 

“I _didn’t_ but whatever helps you turf betteauuughhh.” 

“Pinch. Your. Nose, Three! It’ll help!” 

While Three was now actually attempting to pinch the bridge of her nose and accidentally digging her concealed claws into her skin, something off the side of the stage caught the Octoling’s attention. A quick glance of a flickering neon sign and a few Inklings, maybe an Octarian or two, sneaking away from the hustle and bustle to slip into the small space beside the tower. 

“Hey, what’s that building over there?” 

“Uh.” A quick glance to wherever Eight was point her drink made Three hum, squinting for a second. “... I think that’s-”

“Grizzco!” 

A new voice turned both of their heads to an oncoming Inkling, drink in their hand and a wide grin painted on their features. Both shooting her confused looks as she approached their table.

“What? Y’all don’t know about Inkopolis’ newest and freshest money laundering scheme?” 

Three scoffed as she brought the straw to her lips. “Look, I know my friend here looks dumb but she’s not gonna fall for something like th-”

“Oh, so it's like an illegal shady type thing?” 

“Sorta, yeah!” 

The newest Inkling to the group planted herself right on top of the table, seemingly to ignore whatever Three had to say. Scowling, the Inkling turned to watch the stage show. Despite her grievances, her ears were still perked towards the duo. 

“So… What do people do in there?” 

“We got the most intense job in the world! More intense than X ranked pro leagues! We get to collect _golden eggs!_ We have to fight off spawning Salmonids ‘an take their loot back to the boss!” 

“Salmonids…” Eight raised a claw to her chin, tapping it for a brief moment. “That’s weirdly familiar…”

“They’re big, ugly fish. Pretty damn scary if you want my opinion, come in all sorts of forms, shapes and sizes. But that's what makes the job fun, still a lotta work though. Same kinda salmonids you’re thinkin’ about?” The Inkling cocked her head, short tentacles bobbing slightly with the weight. 

“Y’know, the first word that comes to mind when hearing that name is… Business partner.” 

A laugh from the newcomer lit up the Octoling’s face as she took a sip from her drink. What the fuck! Eight never looks at her like that! What the _fuck!!!_ “Never heard anyone consider ‘em anything but like. Vermin. I guess. Except for maybe one guy I know, he stopped workin’ there after a few shifts… Which sorta sucks, I still think it would’ve been cool for him and I to have been work partners.” 

“It sounds like a lot of work… Much, _much_ more intense than turfing… Or ranked.” _Whatever that was._ Three had mentioned it a few times; and those few times she was strictly told NEVER to go in there. She wasn’t a high enough level to access that part of the tower anyways. 

“Oh it totally is, but I bet a strong beefy Octarian gal like yourself could totally do the job, better than most of my co-workers anyways.” 

Was Eight giggling? At a stupid line like that? Really? What the _fuck_ was this Inkling playing at?! THIS WASN’T FAIR!!!!!! Crumpling her empty cup, Three slamed her first down on the table; much to the pair’s surprise.  
“Great to hear about a job that Eight’ll never need and all but, we really should get back to turfing and stuff, y’know. So why don’t you scram and move along, kiddo.” The specific smile Three flashed was everything a smile aimed _not_ to be. Though to her displeasure, this Inkling only offered a grin back at her. Unable to really place her finger on why, it reminded her of a particular picture of a knife being held at a feline. 

“Oooh. My bad. I totally getcha my main squid!”

“Your what?”

“I’ll get out of your tentacles.”

“Please. Do.”

Sliding off of the table and readjusting the visor she had strapped around her head, the Inkling pulled off one of the coolest things in the history of cool things. Landing something in a trash can about 4 steps away. The tips of Eight’s tentacles perked at such a _slick and awesome_ move. “Hope you guys enjoy the fest!” 

“You too!” With the Mysterious Pest out of the way, Three could finally breathe. 

“Three! You’re so mean to literally everyone we meet. What’s your deal?!” 

“She was annoying. You both were.” 

“Pssh. Speak for yourself, she was cool. Grizzco sounds cool.”

“Oh what so you wanna work for an illegal backalley operation now?”

“Yeah! You’re illegal, you make FUN illegal. Besides, I think Pearl mentioned that in our group chat actually!” 

“ **EIGHT!** ”

“I think she mentioned like a few days back? But I… Think we were playing video games or something.”

“ **YO, EIGHT!!** ” 

“Man. I can hear her voice so clearly.” 

“That’s cause she’s yellin’ right at you.” 

Ears directed towards the shouts first before her head turned, Eight glanced upwards towards the stage. Lively show seemingly put on pause and crowd turned to their table. If Eight was paying attention to her surroundings she would’ve noticed Three’s attempts at hiding her face from the looks.

“ ** _COME ON UP HERE!!!_** ”

Well, she couldn’t turn down a request like that! Up from her seat she jumped, drink abandoned on the table, and thus began her adventure into the crowd. Little effort was needed for her to get up there since the crowd seemed eager to help the Octarian up. Eight tossed a quick wave Marina’s way. “Uh. What did you want me up here for again?” 

Microphone lowered, Pearl flashed her a grin. “Your first ‘fest, ain’t it? Figured it’d be neat to have you up here front and centre stage. ‘Rina was worried we could get in trouble but eh, I can pay for whatever needs to be paid, We want you to enjoy yourself here in Inkopolis! So you can take a seat or do whatever, just enjoy the view!” 

“Can I dance?”

“Shell YEAH you fuckin’ can!” 

“Can Three come up here?” 

A worried glance was shared about the question, dull beat with none of Marina’s mixes or Pearl’s vocals played in the background softly as a response was clearly due. .

“Well, if she’d like to!” Marina finally chimed in, flashing a quick frown at Pearl who seemed to grimace at her words. 

“THREE!!” Eight’s voice tore through the venue, hand raised in a wave to her still seated pal. Elation turned into scowl when she got a dismissive hand in response. Like that was going to stop her.

The chant of the Agent’s name steadily rose in volume, pushing said Inklings patience. Standing just caused the crowd to single handedly flip their shit. Sea life in this city would honestly cheer for a burger being flipped. A moment was needed to shuffle to the stage, even though they parted for her to walk through, and get hoisted up much like Eight. Had to switch to the much smaller swimming form to even make it up there but; here she was!

Okay this was. Far too many people. And way too high up! A hand instinctively shoot up to clutch her arm, beak digging into her bottom lip. This was bad. This was bad and she wanted OUT. Before the question of ‘why are we up here?’ or ‘can we please go down? I don’t like being this high up and with so many people looking at us’ could leave her beak, the answer became clear.

“Y’all ready then?” 

“Yeah!!” 

Wait, what? Nevermind, That wasn’t clear at all! 

One simple nod and Pearl’s needlessly loud voice rang out with a “A one! Two! One two three four!” and as if on cue the music chimed in. **Ugh.** This was far too loud for Three to even enjoy. She couldn’t even focus on expressing her distaste for the track because there was a cute girl to the right of her kicking up a complete uproar from the crowd alongside Pearl. Ah. Eight was dancing again. 

Her moves were messy, amateurish, but the passion and energy that went into every little shift and twist was on the same wavelength as the entire crowd. And wow did that make Three feel out of place. She should’ve known any attempts to slip away and get down from the stage would’ve ended in failure with her around. All it took was one little bump of Eight’s waist against her own and she was more or less locked in place by a clawed grip around her wrists. Something about this felt sickeningly familiar but everything was too loud and bright for her to focus on anything other than Eight. Eight’s face. The way the orange and green light’s illuminated her features in the most flattering way no words could even describe. It was simply _unfair._

“Y’ready to dance now?”

“Eight I told you, I don’t dance, especially not in front of so man-” Attempts to hide the panic in her tone just caused her voice to crack. 

“I know, I know you don’t dance. But this isn’t dancing. This is just you and me having fun. Just pretend those people aren’t there and focus on uh. The floor?... The sky? Me? I don’t know.” In an extremely crafty move she’d started to move back and forth to hopefully ease her into some kind of dance.

“... Okay.” 

Cheer erupted as the two started to kick off. Pearl began to waltz around the pair to keep the energy up with hand flicks and leg kicks, which for some reason also drove the entire venue fervid. Combined vocals of Pearl and Marina had this harmonious kick to them, the blend of two different tones used to two different types of genres combining to make one incredible piece of music was surely something. Three was starting to understand why people liked their music so much.

What she didn’t understand, however, was what was going on literally at all. A usual emotion for her, but this time it was extra. She knew she was dancing. Dancing in front of a couple of hundred people up on a stage being covered in confetti and she was doing with Eight. But none of that made sense! Why on earth would she do that? It clearly didn’t matters as she was suddenly yanked towards Eight. Anytime any pauses happened in the song for the beat rev up again, Eight would throw her hand into the air alongside Pearl and Marina, one hand kept securely fastened around Three’s own which happened to tug her directly towards the other in a jerky fashion. How was she this strong again? 

This was really happening, huh? Up here on stage with a famous pop idol duo dancing with a cute girl. This’d be like one of those stories where everyone claps at the end, right? Well at least she could brag about being up here with the idols online to a bunch of people who she didn’t know but opinions still mattered apparently. The dull thud of her tentacles against the stage floor brought her attention back to the world of the living and- when did Eight get so close? 

Everything was becoming a colored blur at this point as their noses bumped softly against one another. Fuck. _Fuck! Fuck yeah! Fuck,_ **_what is happening?!_** Several different emotions were trying to butt their way to the front of her brain but all she could focus on was Eight’s breath. She could almost taste the hot chocolate lingering in it, in any other instance this would be entirely disgusting but to Three it was currently the hottest goddamn thing in the entire world. It was like all of her ink had been swapped out for gasoline and was about to be set alight just from the sheer thought that this was happening. 

Was there really an option to focus on anything but Eight’s fleeting face… Wait, that wasn’t right? Fleeting? Maybe half closing her eyes might’ve been a bad idea with how close to the edge they were. And how many wires were littered around the stage. Maybe this entire night in general was just a huge mistake. Who knew? The cold hard ground came next. The real surprise was that it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, but when you’ve been through the agency there wasn’t a lot that could phase anymore.

What wasn’t expected, however, was the sudden extra added weight slamming on top of her a moment later. Three could identify the faint, potentially concerned calls from Pearl and Marina but for all she cared they could shove off. Why was their stage up that high anyways?! Surely, that was some kind of safety hazard. Mismatched blue eyes flickered open a few seconds later, once it was confirmed she wasn’t dead.

“Hey, Three? You okay? You’re not dying on me are you?” 

“I am. Leave me to die, thanks.”

“Not on my watch! Get up!” 

She knew by now any protests were going to be ignored as the weight from her chest was removed and she was tugged upwards. Soft murmurs of concern from the crowd wondering if they were okay began to ring in her ears. Three honestly didn’t even know the answer at this point, but the consistent chorus of people asking was beginning to get a little annoying.

“Eight, you good?” 

**Ugh.**

Glancing upwards, the Octoling was met with Pearl and Marina both peering over the edge. If Eight knew what a mother was, she’d compare them both to worried mothers. “Yeah! We’re okay, I think. Three might be dead.” 

Calloused hands found their way around Eight’s wrist, much to the Octoling’s surprise, the tips of her tentacles perking up at the sudden contact. 

"Oh nevermind, she's good!"

“Y’all need anythin’ down there or?”

“Oh no no, we’re good!” Eight shot a quick glance at the other, before back up at the pair. “Thanks for letting us up on stage though! That was awesome!” 

“See ‘Reena, I _told_ you she’d enjoy it!” 

“I don’t think falling off of the stage counts as enjoying anything.” The resident DJ rolled her eyes. “But… As long as you’re okay, Eight!”

“Mhm!” A hearty nod confirmed that. “I think me ‘n Three are gonna go play some more turf anyways!” 

“Kick Three’s ass for me, okay?” Pearl words seemed to get a rise out of the potentially dead Inkling. The look Marina had on her face right now was a cross between agreeing with Pearl and wincing at her statement.

“I’m _right_ here! We’re on the same team!” 

“Pearlie…” Something inaudible was muttered between the two idols. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t for her ears! Pearl piped up a moment later

“We gotta get back to our gig but, offer still stands! Please. Literally destroy Three for me.” 

“Get down off of your stupidly designed stage and fight me yourself, coward! Your music’s bad and you should feel bad about it!” 

If there was ever more of a cue to get a move on, that was it. She had a feeling the crowd was as accepting of Three’s words as Pearl was. 

Retreating back towards table the two had left, it surprised Eight how it was still unoccupied. These tables were usually crowded during her visits to the square. It was admittedly a little spooky to see the area so deserted. With both of them now seated, Eight cocked her head, looking a little more than concerned at the spaced out Inkling sitting across from her.

“You… You still up for turfing?” 

“Yeah, ‘course, just. Gimme a sec.”

This was nothing like their usual conversations and the stuffiness of it all only added to the odd feeling in her stomach. Said odd feeling of something currently pushing Three back and forth was definitely not from the fall, no. It was what happened on the stage that had her entire stomach in a knot. Was she really about to kiss E- **SLAM.**

“Cod! Three!”

Attempts of blocking out everything for a few seconds seemed to be going swimmingly but Eight’s voice still somehow shattered her silence void. Fuck off, Eight. Tables were a perfectly _fine_ and _dandy_ place to slam ones head! 

Turning her head to smush her cheek against the table (which proved to be uncomfortable because it was cold and metal.) Three’s eyes lazily scanned the crowd. If Eight was trying to say anything to her, she better say it louder because Three was currently not available for anything. Scratch that. Nevermind. She was available for turf. 

Shooting upright so fast it made her head spin, Three pointed towards the tower. “We need to go to turf, _**NOW.**_ ” 

“Woooah, what’s gotten into you! I didn’t even get to continue telling you about all the progress I made on the Squee-G and-”

“That can WAIT, this is important!” 

Three must’ve had the ability to teleport because the time it took for her to move around the table and snatch Eight’s hand was minuscule. Either that or she’d suddenly learnt how to move without making any noise and wow that particular thought made Eight extremely uncomfortable. 

Back inside the tower and fired up as ever, Three had a rather malicious grin on her face and at this point Eight was too afraid to ask. Yet that didn’t stop her from running her mouth. “What’s got you all fired up anyways?” 

A hand moved up to clutch her shirt collar. Odd response, but okay. Being yanked down to be at Three’s level made her realise that wasn’t all there was to the explanation. 

“You see that Inkling over there?” 

Following Three’s pointed finger, her sight rested on a rather short looking squid leaning against the wall checking their phone. The weapon on their back long and slender, poking directly up above their head. Oh! A charger! Hey, she remembered that one! One tentacle slid smoothly down the side of their freckled face, while where a matching one should be was just stuck up; sliced ends. Something bright and red was attached to the lobe of their right ear which glistened from the lights of the waiting lobby. 

“I’m not blind sooooo yes. I see ‘em.” Whatever Three was about to say could wait because Eight was having a cod damn epiphany. “Waaaaitt… Wasn’t that Inkling at the canyon when we first went there? I recognise that thingie on their ear.”

“Yes. We know them or- well. _I_ know them. Little _pipsqueak_ thinks they know everything under the fucking sun and I wanna make sure they get knocked down a few pegs and know their place.” Her tone was formed from poison and ice, yet it seemed to have no effect on Eight as a smirk lit up her features. 

“Oh, what, so you wanna one-up ‘em?” Three seemed so fired up about this. _Cute._

“Of course! They’re _supposedly_ Agent Four and _I’m_ Agent Three. I’m above them! They gotta respect and know that!” 

“You’re acting like they’ve already bested you... “ Eight gasped. “Are they bullying you?!” 

“What?! No! I don’t get bullied! Shut up!” 

That smirk never stopped growing, did it?

“Mhm. Well, don’t forget, turfing is about _covering_ and not about going all wild and crazy for splats.” 

“I know!” She was a turf war _veteran_ , Eight! She didn’t need any advice about the sport! Let alone from some stuck up tall Brella main. 

“And don’t forget, your rival here seems to be packing a charger and you’re a- well. A short ranged blaster.”

“Your _point?_ ”

“Well I’m just saying be careful! They outrange you by like- a lot.” 

“Psh! Chargers cower before me, Eight. You don’t got anything to worry your head over.”

Thank the gods the last person was here. She didn’t wanna hear about why it was obviously a bad idea to charge head on at the charger. Because it was clearly the best fucking idea! Eight was an idiot. 

With the battle ready to start and- oh come _on_ why was Humpback back in rotation! And why did it decide to place them all here! This place was now tied to some fucking embarrassing memories all thanks to Eight. Speaking of which, the brella main herself had shoved a sprinkler down on spawn as the rest of the team raced off. Eight could cover base, she was trusted after all, that and Three had a pest to catch. Her journey to the middle was in hopes of at least seeing the dumb laser pointer. With that she could find that little jerks position. Which would’ve worked had they been at the typical sniper perch... Odd. Where could they be? Figuring she’d just cover a few things here and there and be a good little blaster main, even though the urge to splat someone with it was getting harder and harder to ignore. What was the point of a good blaster if you weren’t making the opposition shake in their gear?! Looping back around and heading back towards base on the enemies side of the track seemed to be the best choice of action here. 

Hmn. That sure didn’t sound like the Splattling or the N-zap on her team. Nor did that sound like Eight’s measly little brella firing either. The slow whirring charge up noise was the final key to connect dots in Three’s head as she quickly dived out of the way. A long shot of ink just barely missing her and inking up all of her hard work. Fucker! Motherfucker! “MOTHERFUCKER!” 

If blind rage wasn’t currently taking over, Three would’ve noticed how confused the other seemed but there was no time for fucking around or focusing on whether her outbursts were staying in her head or not right now! Firing a few shots for mobility purposes and dipping into her ink, it took all of four seconds for her to jump right back out. A stupid attempt it was to try and propel herself forward to get her shots to meet. She could practically hear Eight mocking her decisions right now as she just barely landed on her feet. Not like it would’ve worked anyways since Four had immediately moved back during her counterattack. _Coward._

Swimming around the corner to try and avoid the failing attempts to catch them, Four finally realised what was going on. 

“Agent Three? That you?” 

“STAND STILL.” 

Quite the pitiful scene, a charger standing just out of reach and an angry blaster trying to jump in a sad attempt for their shots to do something other than just a sad pop into nothingness. 

“I didn’t think I’d see you out here! Didn’t know you were a blaster main! That is so cool, did you know that we have our own Hero Blaster now?” 

“STOP BEING SUCH A COWARD ‘N COME FORWARD YOU LITTLE PEST!” 

“Mmmnah. I’d be gettin’ smacked by that splash damage from your Luna if I did! You, on the other hand though.” Shifting their charger up so they could now peer through the eyepiece did not raise Three’s attention. The sudden pause in their speech and Four peering over the edge with a full charge ready for action certainly did though. “Might wanna move.” 

Another shot just barely missed. It was forcing Three out of that lane and towards the middle once more. This was NOT how this was supposed to be! Fuck! Eight was right! Why did Eight have to be right!!! Why was she _always_ fucking RIGHT?! Taking a moment to regain some ink, Four seemed to think that this was the perfect opportunity to run their mouth. 

“So, team pulp huh? You like chunks?”

Fuck this.

“I AM NOT A CHUNK LOVER!” Only half a tank full, Three popped out of the ink and instead this time decided splat bombs would be the better option. Maniacal grin crossing their features as Four moved back a little more towards their own spawn point. The bomb missed, granted, but now there was a bigger issue at hand... 

“Well that wasn’t very smart. Now you’re like. Super low on ink… And right out in the open too. It would be a shame if someone...” 

Shit. Spinning quickly on their heels, the last of her ink was used to make an admittedly short path backwards towards the large hump in the centre. That was nowhere near enough ground to get away from Four’s next shot and nowhere near enough time to refill unless the next shot was a miss… Fuck. She was about to be bested by a charger user. A dumbass little cocky charger user who also happened to be an Agent. Tonight. Fucking. Sucked.

“We’re to take advantage of that.” Four didn’t seem to care if Three could hear their taunts. They sounded cool in their head and that was all that mattered. 

Switching from half kid to half squid form in a futile attempt to gather some ink. Make some space between them. Something! Must’ve looked hilarious through that scope. Though… The slimy feeling of respawning never hit her. Odd. Little did the panicking Agent know that Eight had seen her plight from a mile off, jumped away from painting the right side of the track and swam as fast she could to hopefully get there before Three fell prey to this charger. And whaddya know it worked! Leaping out of the ink and popping out her brella shield right in front of the squabbling Inkling was just enough to block the shot. Sure, the entire shield was knocked out in the process but Three wasn’t down and that's what mattered. 

Landing on the ink covered ground with a slight skid to her step, she held the empty brella handle forwards with a scowl. “I don’t take kindly to people who tease my teammates.” Not waiting another moment for Four to wind up another shot, Three’s hand was grabbed and yanked down into her initial trail to get away. Arriving at a safer spot, Eight’s hand gently pushed Three against the nearest wall.

“I never wanna hear you say brella’s are bad weapons _ever_ again, you hear me?” 

Bright orange coated Three’s face as all she could muster was a nod. 

“Do me a favor, jump back to spawn and go back down that same alley. I’ll distract them so you can reclaim all that shit they covered, okay?” 

“O-Okay!” 

The stressful yet familiar thirty seconds left jingle hit Eight’s ears as she progressed into their base. Claiming back turf had been fairly successful as she had been keeping a close eye on the map after all. But right now it looked pretty close, so a risky move to try and base press was all she had to go on. Everyone seemed to be skirmishing in the middle so maybe this was her chance? All was fine and dandy until a little green light stopped her in her tracks, immediately moving to the side to dodge. Fuck. That charger was still up here?

Silence seemed to coat the loud battlefield as the two shared a simple glance. Eight was quick to move, holding the shield out with an odd string of words in Octarian hoping that Four wouldn’t immediately shatter the shield. Hearing it pop off seconds later was her signal, beginning to cover as much as one could with half an ink tank left. Before she could truly run out, Eight submerged herself, the feeling of the loud speakers pumping Muck Warfare through her was enough to make her hearts race. She knew Four was waiting. She knew Four was aiming at where she was so she only had one shot at this. 

Ten seconds remaining. 

It was a stupid plan in hindsight, but that was what the fun of turfing was. Leaping out of the ink, Eight’s barely formed hand lobbed a sprinkler over Four’s head. It stuck to the surface behind them with a loud pop and began to spin wildly. With that, Eight inked a line towards the edge of the platform, swimming as fast she could to flop off of the edge and down onto the lower half of the map. Just as the timer told everyone to stop. 

Checking her map as the music faded out, her beak dug into her bottom lip. Fuck. This looked awkwardly close. C’mon… C’mon… 

46.7 - 46.4! 

“OH FUCK YEAH!!!! GET WRECKED! GET **FUCKED** YOU LOSERS!” 

There was no need to look up from the map to know who was screaming. That was her Three alright. No point in trying to stop the little smile resting on her face at the screaming Inkling in the centre. 

Moments later, everyone was transported back to the lobby. They were about to check how everyone did coverage wise (Eight was pretty much expecting Three to be right at the bottom) when a tug to her shirt drew her away from such details. 

“Hey, that was a good game!” Oh, Agent Four! “You’re a great brella player! We should definitely uh- play. Play again sometime!”

Wow! A nice opponent! Those existed? 

“Oh sure! You’re a real tough charger, haven’t felt that pressured since-” 

“EEEEIIIIGHTTT! WE TOTALLY BEAT THEM!” 

Being literally yanked away from her current conversation made a warbled sound of surprise leave her throat as she was now facing Three. Man, it was nice to see her so happy.

“Hope that showed Four where they really are!” 

That warm glow of happiness quickly switched to panic as Eight flinched. Three, shut your mouth!

“Oh _yeaaah._ The struggling Luna totally showed me where I am. Thanks for reminding me Three!” The littlest of the trio quickly disappearing from the lobby without another word. Smart move in Eight’s opinion. 

Three got exactly one whole foot forward to start pursuing before Eight slammed her hands down on her shoulders. Oh. Oh no no no. She wasn’t gonna let someone just ruin Three’s good mood like that. Spinning her around, Three attention was drawn away from the closed doors and back to Eight. 

“Did we fuck ‘em up?”

“... Yeah.” 

“I can’t hear you! C’mon, I thought you were a big, loud and tough Luna main! Did. We. Fuck. ‘Em. Up?!” 

“I guess so?”

Well this wasn’t going to suffice! Not in Eight’s books at all! Deciding to take an up close and personal approach on this by shoving her face entirely too close to the Inkling’s own. 

“Hey!! Did we fuck that team up good like we know we did? Don’t leave me hanging with this, Three, I know you like to yell. We totally destroyed them.”

“Y-Yeah. We did didn’t we? We really fucked em up good!” 

Yes! Yes!! Three did it! She got to beat Four and got Eight to laugh! Tonight was fucking amazing and it felt like her veins were currently on fucking fire! How did Eight even manage do that with a simple laugh?! 

“You ready to go again? Or you wanna bask in this epic victory.” 

“Oh no no. Were going again. Let’s go wreak some havoc!” 

It’d be a long, long _LONG_ time since Three had bothered to put this much effort into Splatfest. Her main reason? Turfing with Eight was fun. Usual rage from a loss was replaced with a passive attitude about the whole thing when seeing the Octoling's happy face moments later from a win. It felt good. Better than good, even. 

That odd time where the sun was beginning to peak up just over the horizon, yet the sky didn’t seem ready to give up it's dark mood lighting just yet was upon the two as they exited the tower. A soft, duller, and definitely appreciated on Three’s end, version of Ebb and Flow was playing from the speakers. Late night turfers were scarcely scattered around the tower, some looking more ready to collapse at their feet than others and Three seemed not too far off from said collapsing state. 

Which was exactly why Eight halted their turfing for tonight… This morning? What was the time again? Either way, she didn’t want the other passing out in the middle of a match. One arm was slung over the others shoulder as the two walked at a slow pace. She’d blame it on being tired, but Three lent ever so slightly against the taller girl. Yeah. She liked having that arm over her? So what? Would she ever admit it? Absolutely not, fuck off. 

“Hey” So much shouting had taken a toll on her vocal chords, as a rather husky whispering left Three’s beak. 

“Mm?” 

“You wanna get donuts? Cause I know like- a place down the street and I figured they’d be a good splatfest treat or whatever.”

“Three, is that even a question? It’s always time for donuts. Of course I wanna get donuts.” 

It was silent, save for Three directing them. She’d lived in this city for quite some time now, how many years she honestly couldn’t tell you (mainly because she had the memory of a literal earthworm) but she digressed. She knew where this particular donut shop was, and she knew that it was good. This was gonna blow Eight’s fuckin’ mind. 

“They’re just so infuriating- Like. I swear. Everything bad that happens to me is somehow linked to Agent Four.” 

“They sound pretty cool, I should get to know them better…” 

“You’re gonna kill me one of these days, you know that?” 

“Well, gee, I sure hope so! Better be me until you walk into a tree or trip over your own shoelaces!” 

Conversation picked up the closer they got. It was a good thing this placed opened its doors at 6 am for whatever insane reason, and not just because it happened to be 6:22am right about now! Being run by an Inkling and all, you’d think otherwise! Tucked away on a row of still closed stores was one that was quite hard to miss. Mainly because the smell of freshly baked pastries would hit you the second you were in walking distance. A small laugh left Eight’s mouth at the sound of Three’s stomach growling. Hey! She hadn’t eaten in ages! And was turfing for the last couple of hours! Give her a break! 

“A-Anyways.” One of the many things Eight loved about Three was how easy it was to fluster her, that mess of green coating her face was always something good to look forward to. A flustered Three was a good one in her books. “This place I’ve been goin’ too since I knew my way around these parts. The old dude runnin’ it is probably one of the sweetest Inkling’s i’ve ever met in my life. Dude knows his way around baking. He’ll make something special for you if you want.” 

“Can he put macaroni and cheese on donuts?” 

Tired as she was, Three still mustered a disgusted look. “You’re the absolute worst you know thaAAAA **AAAAAAAH.** ”

Well, that was one way to get her to stop dissing her goddamn food tastes! Fuck you, too! Now, why was she screaming again? Oh hey a motorcycle! Turns out not being terrified of a motorized bike skidding up quite close to you at high speeds isn’t a normal thing. 

“What the _fuck._ T-That nearly hit me! I could’ve died!” 

“What did I tell you! Something’s gonna get to you before I do and I ain’t lettin’ that happen.” 

“I’m flattered but not really!”

“Geez, ‘reena. You’re gonna hit someone one of these days.” As muffled as it was coming from beneath a helmet and all, even with ears as torn as Three’s, it was still audible.

“Uh, _hey._ You nearly DID hit someone!” 

Drawing attention from the two people seated on the bike, both helmets were quickly removed. Oh. _Wonderful._

“Oh, please.” Marina tutted softly, turning the ignition off with a slight hum as the hearty rumble died down. “I know how to ride a bike. I would’ve been miles off of hitting you.”

“Still!” 

“Haaaah. You scared her.” 

“I am not scared of a-” Back went the keys into the ignition, the initial _vvvrm_ of the bike sparking to life caused an odd ‘eep’ like sound to leave Three as she flinched. Several seconds of silence passed before everyone but the spooked Agent burst into laughter. Hilarious. Great. 

Much to Three’s displeasure, it turned out Marina and Pearl’s stop for this morning also happened to be here. Eight, on the other hand, was delighted. Hell yeah. Pearl, Marina and Three. All of her favourite people in one place eating donuts! Despite the place being empty, she made sure to save them seats. No point in sitting on separate tables, after all! 

Even if she had to deal with Marina and Pearl, at least Three had donuts. That was all that mattered. It was a good thing the old dude running this joint (Three still referred to him as pops, which Eight thought was unfairly sweet and duly noted to herself to mock Three for it later on) remembered exactly what her favourites were; A donut covered in marshmallow glaze with melted chocolate and graham cracker crumbs crushed up on top of it. What could she say? She was a sucker for this kind of beak rotting stuff. 

About to take her first bite, all attempts were halted as Pearl’s own monstrosity of a donut was slammed down on the table. 

“... Is that cream cheese? Please tell me thats cream cheese.” 

“It’s mayonnaise! Duh? What else would ya put on a donut.” 

Before Three could even begin on why the fuck you would absolutely not do this and how you’re ruining donuts right the fuck now please stop- Eight chimed in. 

“Wait. Wait wait wait Hold on. Pearl gets mayonnaise on hers but I can’t have macaroni and cheese on mine? How is this fair?”

“Because we’re not fucking animals, Eight, shut up and eat your donut.”

“Casuals can’t understand why mayonnaise is literally the best topping on all and every food. It enhances everything!” 

Standing up with an overly loud screech from her chair, Three cleared her throat. “Well, it’s been lovely but- h-hey!” Plans were foiled as Eight grabbed her arm and forced her back into her seat. 

“Look, I’m not gonna sit here and watch Pearl eat a-”

“Marina! So you ride a motorcycle. I did not know that! At all! Please tell me about it!” Eight pushed her elbows against the table, resting her chin on her hands as she smiled almost desperately at the other Octarian. 

Thank cod Marina was smart. Or, at least, wise to what Eight was trying to do.

“Mh? Oh! Right. We didn’t really get to talk much down in the metro did we? Aside from getting you out alive. But yes! It’s much quicker than anything else, me and Pearlie tend to wake up late sometimes and we don’t exactly live the closest to the studio-” 

“Yeah! We lif all the wafh out of Inkfopolis!” 

“Pearl, can you-” 

“Like up in this mansion! It’s sick! We got like- 5 kitchens.” 

“ _FIVE?!_ ”

“Mmh! We always got the best food there too. Deluxe stuff.” 

“Yet you still can’t get going without hot food… I swear, they’re gonna fire us for how close we cut it every single morning.” 

“You can't rush perfection with hot food, Marina. I like them HOT, not warm or room temperature. I want my tongue burnt.” To prove a point, her tongue was poked out, a little silver ball resting in the middle shone against the ceiling light. 

“So… burning them to a crisp, then?” 

“You. Fucking. Know it. I bet Eight’d love my cooking, right?” 

“I-”

“Eight’ll eat anything so I wouldn’t hold her opinion very highly. You could probably give her wrappers and she’d still say thank you and eat ‘em.” Ignoring the looks from the taller girl beside her, Three went back to her food. “She likes cold food anyways.”

“I like _all_ food, thank you very much! Food is good no matter what!”

Marina hummed in agreement, using a clawed finger to flick a crumb away from her mouth. “I have to agree, much better after a long night’s performance, too. We don’t get much time for breaks during Splatfest so any time to sit down and eat is appreciated. A twenty four hour concert takes a lot out of someone but at least we get time to sleep and all. We gotta be back by twelve but, we have time to take a nap at least. It’s not… Ideal- but it's better than the timeslots we were given in the army, right?”

“Actually I don’t… Really remember anything from the army! Not a lot past the whole waking up in the metro shindig. I remember a few things though! Like. I know I was there, everything's just sorta fuzzy so I try not to think about it.” 

A worried glance was shared between the two idols. 

“B-But its fine! Like. It’s nothing I need to worry about, right? Like. the surface is way better and I don’t have to eat birds anymore! And I have Three!” 

“That honestly makes me more concerned for your situation.” Marina half mumbled, tips of her tentacles twitching lively as she ignored a huffy glare from Three. 

“Oh no no! She’s done a lot of cool things for me since I got up here. Warm clothes, a place to sleep, free food. Like, I definitely wouldn’t be here without Three, or have my trusty Splatbrella! That and- you wouldn’t guess it just by knowing but she’s really great company and actually a good opponent in fighting games! Oh and-” 

“ _HRK_ -” Eight was halted by the sudden choking noise beside her. She rolled her eyes and gave Three an extremely harsh smack to her upper back. 

“Good cod, Can you not handle one simple compliment? You’re worse than Pearl!” 

“Whaaaat?! I can handle plenty’a compliments! And dish em out just as fast!” 

“You spilt coffee over your hoodie when I called you precious in the studio two days ago.” 

“You’re dreamin’ that stuff up, Mar.” 

“Mhm! Of course I am, anyways, Eight; you were saying?” 

“Oh right! And she’s just nice to be around! I know everyone probably thinks she’s really mean and kinda stuffy and- yeah. They’re not wrong in the slightest but. I like her, so.” The Octoling gave a shrug as she took the final bite of her food. “Playing the Splatfest today was so fun too, right Three?... Three?” 

Usually pokerfaced, Three had turned a rather unpleasant shade of green as she raised a had to her mouth, refusing to look anywhere aside from the oh so interesting wall. She wasn’t used to compliments. Especially not ones about her. Even as something as little as this had set of fireworks in her stomach. 

Pearl and Marina shared a knowing look. 

“That must be a pretty good donut if it got her to shut up…” 

“Talkin’ of Splatfest, I see y’all are on the best team. My team. Team Pulp. Chunk lovers unite, amiright?” 

“Pulp is sooo good! I only got to try it recently but it blows normal OJ outta the park!” 

“See, Eight gets it. Eight totally gets this and understands unlike _some_ people.” 

“You are both heathens.” 

“At least we agree on something…” Three’s muffled voice seemed to perk everyone’s interest. “... What?” 

“Aren’t you on team pulp? You ain’t sabotagin’ my team are you?!” 

“No! It’s because Eight wanted to join Team Pulp! I can’t stand the stuff! I’m fuckin’ offended you’d think I’d like that!” 

Pearl’s eyebrows raised as a smirk crossed her face. “Oh so it’s _just for Eight_ , huh?” 

“N-No! I want snails too!” 

“But didn’t you say there was no way in hell Pulp was gonna win anyways?” Eight _un_ helpfully interjected. 

“UGHHHH. You all. SUCK! All of you! I’m gonna flip this table if you don’t all shut your beaks!” 

“But I ain’t finished my mayonut...” 

“ _Pearl._ ” Hard to tell if that tone of voice was because of what she just said, or was used to get her attention. 

“UUGhh.” The sound everything currently on the table clinking together made Eight flinch as Three, albeit a lot more gentle this time, slammed her head down on the table. 

“Don’t mind Three, she’s just tired.”

“Oh no worries we-” Marina’s ear twitch in irritation as a yawn interrupted whatever she was going to say, moving to cover her mouth. “We should be getting on our way anyways. We don’t get a lot of time to rest during Splatfest… Right, Pearl?” 

The Inkling aside her jerked her head up quickly, ears just barely visible beneath her overly large front tentacles. “Yeah, Yeah. Mhm. What we talking about?” 

Chuckling softly, Marina stood offering her hand out to help the other out of her seat. “I think that’s a pretty good sign for us to head back. I don’t want Pearl to fall asleep during the drive home.” 

Sharing a tight hug with both idols, the duos went their separate ways. Eight couldn’t exactly remember when exactly Three started holding her hand, but she knew that it was definitely happening as the two watched Marina rev her motorcycle before heading off, the distant growl of the engine beginning to fade as they began their own treck home. The floor was a welcoming flopping destination for Eight as she more or less collapsed once they were through the door. 

“I love your carpet. I love your dusty, disgusting carpet so much.” 

“We vacuumed yesterday, you twit.”  
It was hard to pinpoint why exactly, but Eight felt like, up until now, that she was unable to remove her Splatfest Tee. Ah well, it was off now. Comfy, shirtless and on the ground. Just how she liked it. And just how Three absolutely hated it. Head turned to the side and trying to ignore the entire situation, she mumbled something about getting a shirt on before disappearing down the hall. 

Hmph! It was Splatfest, Three. She could do what she wished! Yet she still abided by Three’s dumb shirt rules and tugged on one of her tank tops she had resting around near the bottom of the sofa. Wasn’t exactly like she had a place to store clothes yet so they were piled up near the bottom right side all folded and neat. By the time Three came back, all she saw was a messy pile of blankets and pillows, two dark skinned ears and a mess of pinky red tentacles flopped over a white pillow. Eight looked comfy, to say the least. It made the Agent a little anxious for her upcoming question. 

“Hey Eight…?” 

Her head immediately rose at hearing her name, it seemed for once Three had caught her off guard. She was tired, after all. 

“So I know you. You didn’t have the best night last night. It was pretty shitty, right?” 

“Threeeee… Can we talk about this later? I’m tired…” 

“That ain’t what I wanna focus on! It’s- it’s just. I want to prevent that happening again and like. I know you’re probably comfortable there but I’m worried I won’t be awake if you- if **it.** Happens again so I was wondering if you wanted to sleep in my room? Even just for tonight.” 

A stuff silence laced the air between them as Three waited for a response. This was hard enough to spit out as it was… The added stuffiness was just making her sweat. 

“Mm… I think that's the sappiest thing you’ve said to me yet!” 

“ _Yet?!_ When have I ever been sappy to your stupid dumb ass?!” 

All Three got in response was Eight poking her tongue out before shuffling to get out of her blanket nest. “But yeah, I can do that!” 

It was planned for Three to sleep on the floor, to give Eight all the space she desired. Living with a persistent ex-Octarian Soldier should’ve taught Three that wouldn’t go down. Here she was, laying on her back, gaze turned up at the ceiling and struggling to sleep. If she’d gone back in time and told herself that she’d eventually be resting in the same bed with an Octarian Soldier she actually cared about, she probably would’ve choked laughing. Or cried. Either or, pretty bad reactions. Another part of her that wasn't thinking about time travel shenanigans was glad she was so tired from turfing, or actually getting some rest might’ve been harder than she initially planned. Her eyes flickered shut with time, the sun filtering in through the blinds and the various rings on Eight were the only things lighting the room as the two finally got some well deserved sleep.

Come morning, however, (late afternoon, really) Three felt oddly warm. Granted, living in a tropical climate city and sleeping with the covers on tended to leave any Cephaloperson who wasn’t dead feeling quite hot but this time felt different somehow. Deciding to ignore that in exchange for more rest proved to be a losing battle as something was tickling her nose. The rising panic that it was in fact _not_ her imagination and ruined any chance of her getting comfortable again as her eyes shot open. Well. Nothing was in front of her as far as she could tell. 

Though, attempting to move only got an upset whine from the person attached to her hip.

Wait. What?

Realization came crashing down as she caught sight of what exactly was making her all the more heated. This was not how it was last night! When did Eight move over here and more importantly when did Eight’s arm get thrown across her waist!! Why was she so close?! What were her reasons?! A drop of lime ink dripped down onto one of her pillows as she tried to take in exactly what was going on here. It should’ve been simple, right? Eight was just. Close. Nothing more nothing less, but to Three, this was like a someone trying to ask her to solve a math equation in Octarian. And she failed math! Twice! 

A few minutes of struggling and Eight proving her grip to be unfairly strong (Three already knew this from the amount of times she’d been effortlessly plucked up) left her stuck. Her frustrated groan was cut off by the sound of her phone buzzing on the nightstand. That thing still had charge after last night? Wow. Managing to scrape it off of the table and into her hand by the tip of her fingers caused her to chirp in satisfaction under her breath. Success! Now. What was the time? Hmn. Kinda late into the afternoon. Had the results been announced yet? 

Whoops, looks like they’d missed the live results. Well. Eight could see them later, she was curious herself in who’d- 

**What.**

No Pulp had won the votes, _obviously_ but… How did they lose both Team and Solo battles?! What the fuck?!! 

“What the fuck!” 

This was rigged! This was bullshit!! Splatfests are a fucking scam and rigged and- 

“Three?”

“Hm-? Oh. Hey.” 

Trying to force down that blush rising back to her face, Three glanced downwards at the newly awakened Octoling. 

“Good morning, starshine, the earth says fuck you”, and with that, she turned back to her phone. 

“Mn. Why are you so angry this morninnnggg.” Eight lazily raised a hand, tapping the others cheek, nearly poking her in the eye a few times along the way.

“I’m always angry, all the time.”

“What’re you looking at anyways?” 

_Shit._ Their deal. “The-uhhh. The… current weather forecast?” 

Eight’s gaze was already ticking at her patience. Why was she looking at her like that! “W-What?!” 

“... Did No-Pulp lose?” 

“N-No? Of course we didn’t lo-” 

“Lemme see!” 

With a swipe towards her phone, Three began to panic. No! She couldn’t lose another bet to Eight! ‘Quick’ thinking led to her tossing her phone half way across the room, wincing as she awaited for it to smack against the ground but sighed softly a moment later as it hit a clothes pile near the door. 

There was exactly four seconds of silence before both cephalopods scrambled to grab the phone. Three was first to skid across the room and grab it, only to have Eight immediately slam into her and drop it. Pushing Eight a side with all she could, which got a small little ‘oof’ noise from the Octarian, the phone was in her possession once again as she bolted for the door. But where was one to go in an apartment! She couldn’t unlock the door in time, not with Eight hot on her tracks. Uh. _Uh._

Time was of the essence here and Three had already run out. She was tackled to the floor before she even had a chance to register what the fuck was going on or where Eight came from. Hands pinned above her head and with Eight comfortable sitting on her stomach the phone was in her possession before she could even think of an insult to hurl at the other. 

So, for once in her life, Three decided to keep her beak shut as Eight took a moment to find what she was looking for.

“Mhm. No Pulp has got this in the bag, have they?” 

“S’rigged”, was all she managed to get out, refusing to even look at Eight right now. She didn’t wanna see the smug grin and she wasn’t going to see that smug grin and- cod damn it why’d she look! 

“You know what this means~!” The singsongy voice that left Eight made Three want to punch something. 

“No. I don’t. Get off me.” 

“You gotta take a bath!” 

“No! I don’t! Literally, we didn’t write it down! It doesn’t count!” 

The grip on her wrists suddenly tightened. 

“Three. I swear to cod, if you don’t get your _ass_ in that bathroom in the next five minutes, there will be _consequences._ ” 

Three swallowed thickly. “T-This is my house, I can do what I wa-” 

“ _Consequences._ You smell so bad, go take a shower right now.” 

“Fine! I will if you get off me!” 

“Okay~!” 

The walk of literal shame to the bathroom left Three in a rather bad mood, to say the least. She’d been staring at the doorknob for the last couple of seconds before Eight finally gave her the motivation to go inside. 

“If you don’t open that door in the next five seconds, I’m gonna come in there with you and-”

“YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY _NOT_ DOING THAT!! I’M GOING, ALRIGHT?” 

A satisfied smirk crossed Eight’s features as she heard the bathroom door slam down the hall. 

Three hated admitting she was wrong, and she had developed a specific hatred for admitting Eight was right but… That did feel a million times better. She wasn’t entire sure how long exactly she’d been in there, but the mirror and room itself was pretty damn fogged. Her tentacles had been tied up in a long ponytail for the occasion, since tripping over them; slipping on the wet floor and then dying would’ve been potentially the worst way to go. 

Wrapping a towel around herself, Three glanced over to the fogged up mirror, a hand moving forward to wipe some of the condensation away. Ha. She looked like a nerd with her tentacles up like that. Wow. This mirror was fogged as fuck. The right side of her face was still covered with condensation it seemed, but no matter how much she tried to wipe it away, it wasn’t budging. An odd chill ran down her back as apprehension began to flow over her… That wasn’t _on_ her, was it? Her fingers drifted lazily over the right side of her scarred face. It looked, to say the least, unpleasant. The consistent itchiness on the right side suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

What seemed to be burn scars were poking out from beneath the actual scarring, an off color teal that covered most of the right side of her face. There was no point mentioning the ear on that side, as it was more or less gone. Tears began to form in the corner of her eyes as she could do nothing but stand there and take in her reflection. 

Three looked like a monster and Three did _not_ like it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four breaks into Three's apartment and Eight has to wear a dress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there y'all! Thank you for being so persistent with me on this ; v ; The last few months have been total chaos but I wanted to get this out before Christmas and holy SHIT am I cutting it close. But thank you so much for your patience, this one is a little messy but hopefully is a good one.

_How could she have not said anything?! **ANYTHING** about… THIS?! Did Eight think it was funny? Was she too disgusted to even bring it up? How could she bare looking at her?! Why didn’t she say anything!? _

“Why didn’t you SAY ANYTHING?” Still wrapped in a towel, barely giving Eight a chance to register what was going on, Three slammed a hand down on the armrest of the sofa. Which all in all seemed to grab the Octarian’s attention. She was met with a quirked brow look. The smirk residing on the others face ignited a spark in the Inkling’s veins. 

“What? About the shower? Yeah! We have one of those! Who knew right?!” 

“EIGHT. NOT _THAT!_ ” 

“... Was the hot water off?” 

Another slam to the armrest as Three’s hand morphed into a fist. 

“It’s _**not**_ about the shower! It’s about… I-It’s…” _Just say the word scar, Three. Don’t be a baby. Don’t-_ There was no hope in stopping the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. How did she not notice the complete mess that was her face before now? “It’s not about the shower…” 

“Three?” Eight, with tone now completed shifted, shuffled to sit up more. 

“How could you not tell me?!” Three lowered her head, bangs covering the front of her face as she hunched her shoulders. 

The Octoling swallowed thickly. Concern written all over her features as she shifted to be at eye level with Three on her knees. “... About what?” 

Something. _Something_ about that hit a nerve deep within Three, her usually concealed claws pushing themselves out; eyes turning to mere pinpricks. “About _**WHAT?!**_ Eight, are you fucking BLIND?! Have you taken a look at me in the last couple of weeks?! Or are you just ignoring it? Bypassing it! Cause you gotta have a stomach of steel not to retch at every single glance!” 

Confusion was written all over Eight’s features, as well as a dash of concern. Mouth slightly agape as she tried her hardest to understand exactly what the issue was exactly. It felt like an eternity before she finally spoke up. “I… Don’t know what you’re talking about?” 

If Eight had to describe how it all went down, she would’ve said it was all too quick. Three’s head whipped upwards, the force causing her tentacles to whip with the motion as she raised both hands to her face. It was immediately picked up on by the Octarian that Three was digging her unsheathed claws in her skin and that was not going down in this house. No way, no how.

“Do you not fucking understand how disgusting I look? How disgusting this is a-” 

Clawed hands snaked around the Inkling’s wrists, trying to forcefully drag them away before blood was drawn or worse. “ _ **HEY!**_ ” 

No words were spoken as Three was hopeless to the tears rolling down her cheeks, forcefully trying to keep her hands in place. Usually looking into Eight’s amber eyes was something that set her insides on fire, but this time around there was nothing but resentment towards herself and the entire situation. 

“Three. Don’t do that.” 

It was weird to hear Eight with such a serious tone, so weird in fact that Three herself couldn’t even muster a response greater than a simple whimper. Giving up in the way of letting the Octoling guide her hands away from her face. Even when lowered back down to her sides, her clawed grip remained tightly around them. 

“Three…” Eight’s voice quickly shifted, seeming much more softer than before. “Is it your scar?” 

As if trying to hide it, the Inkling let her bangs drift over her eyes as she lowered her head. Giving a weak nod after. “It’s disgusting.” 

“What? No it-” 

“I didn’t even see it. I didn’t even know It- It’s just like- The agency, I must’ve been a laughing stock. They must’ve all thought I looked revolting. I... can’t understand how anyone could look at me, it looks like someone peeled the side of my face away a-and that’s just out there.. P-people saw me in the plaza, while I was turfing and I looked- I look I-I.” Quivers wracked her voice as Three’s shoulders twitched with each laboured breath, unable to hold back her tears. “I look like a monster…” 

If it wasn’t obvious to tell, Three wasn’t one to express her emotions very often. Especially not the sad ones because those were under a strict lock and key. It was a tug of war between panic and misery as both tried to make themselves the dominant emotion, causing a rough pain to make itself known in the pit of her chest. 

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d broken down like this, even if she wasn’t sobbing and sprawled out on the floor, crying in front of someone for the first time in years was. Terrifying. When even _was_ the last time she cried like this? Wasn’t it over dropping ice cream when she was five? No… Banging her shin’s against the family dining table?... Nope.

_Callie, she knows what she got herself into. She signed up for this and we don’t have time to babysit right now! She needs to get a move on! Now tell her that or hand over the mic we have work to do!’_

Ah.  
Right.

“Three? Hey! C’mon! Don’t back out on me now.”

The one remaining ear perked as she was torn away from her thoughts. Probably a good thing, not too good to dwell on the past after all. Being met with Eight’s determined gaze made her sniffle, bottom lip still trembling. There was _something_ she wanted to say, something she wanted to do, but _**something**_ else was holding her tongue. Good thing that Eight had zero of those things holding her voice back.

“I don’t know what Inklings consider monstrous but… You definitely aren’t that? There’s SOOO many words I’d use to describe you and monster doesn’t seem to be on the list! So you can toss that one of the window.” 

“But-” 

“Ah ah! No. No buts!” A clawed finger was roughly pressed against her lips, Eight taking the opportunity to quickly wipe away a runaway tear descending down the others cheek. “I said you’re not a monster, so you’re not a monster, besides-” 

Almost seemingly reluctant, Eight pulled her hands away to pull up her shirt, only to flinch when the panicked garbled noise left the other in front of her. Her hands dropped the shirt immediately to flash her a confused look. 

“I-I APPRECIATE THE SENTIMENT E-EIGHT BUT I DON’T WANT TO SEE Y-” 

Being currently turned away from the other with her eyes squeezed shut, a snort drew her curiosity back over. Sighing in relief as she noticed Eight had only draw her shirt up to be about crop top level. Little trickles of green that curved around her waist stood out against her dark skin as she chuckled. “You’re such a fuddy duddy.”

“I am not! I’m just not used to people _stripping_ in front of me!” 

“I wasn’t gonna strip! I was just trying to get it so you could see my scar! Y’know. The big gaping hole right on my back?” 

“You can easily hide that. It’s not on your _face_ , Eight.” 

“This ain’t a scar competition, you dumb fuck. Anyways, like I was trying to say; Look. We match.” Keeping the shirt raised with one hand she gestured between the two of them. “They’re both that nasty sanitation stuff, they’re both bright blue. They both glow in the dark.” 

“T-This glows in the dark?” 

“Yeah!”  
_Great._ Three winced. As if this bastard scar couldn’t even get anymore noticeable. Apparently her dislike for this new information was easily picked up on, the subject quickly shifting. 

“Isn’t it kinda cool that we match? We both got some stupid thing on us that reminds us of a shit time but it’s really similar in a lot of ways, y’know?” 

It seemed Eight was now waiting on a response that was never going to be delivered. After a few seconds of silence and Three scratching at her face she huffed, suddenly patting the arm rest. “C’mere a sec.” 

“Eight I-” 

“Humor me, will you?” 

With a slight grumble, Three took a seat, a scowl replacing her downcast pout from before. “Alright, What?” 

“Now I know all you Inklings are obsessed with being spicy or whatever-” 

“Fresh.”

“Yeah, that, whatever. I know you’re all obsessed with that stuff. I think it's pretty fresh to have something no one else does. Actually, I think it’s pretty fresh to be _someone_ no one else can be. Scar or no scar.” 

Oh! _**Oh!**_ What was this!? A smile?! Eight was no facial recognition expert but she was pretty damn sure... 

“Are you… Smiling?” 

“Hmn? What? No!” 

“Threeee!!!” 

“No!” 

Before Three could even retaliate, arms were wrapped around her waist in an awkward fashion due to the way she was sitting, her own arms now securely pressed to her waist as she was tugged forward. 

“HEY, Eigh- **No!!** Off! Get off! Let me go!” 

“You showered! And you smiled! I’m legally obligated to give you a hug!” 

“You’re legally obligated to fuck off!”  
Legs awkwardly thrown over the armrest with most of her bodyweight now resting against a very pleased Octoling, Three sighed heavily through her nose. Squirming proved to be futile because Eight was stupidly, unfairy strong and apparently had intentions to just hold her in place until she stopped throwing a hissy fit. 

“You gonna stop wiggling now?” That smug, triumphant voice only made Three’s ear twitch in irritation as she looked away. 

Trying to hold any amount of dignity while awkwardly laying across both an armrest and an Octarian’s lap was proving to be extra difficult. 

“This is a shit hug. I’ve had better.” 

There was a longer than need be silence before Eight finally gasped.

“You _gotten_ hugs before? Unbelievable. And here I thought I was the first, way to ruin the achievement, Three.” 

The low grumble that left the Inkling in question was all Eight needed for that cocky smirk to slide back onto her face. Both cephalopods were suddenly cast in an oddly comforting silence. Three was surprised by how much she actually _liked_ this. A soft _plip, plap_ from the dripping kitchen sink and the sound of the wind outside was the only thing from casting the two in complete stillness. It left the Agent quite quite a lot to think about, that snowball of thoughts careening down a questioning hill gave Three barely any warning to stop it before getting on a roll. It took a moment, but after a few minutes, her voice pushed through the silence. 

“Eight.” 

“Mm?” 

“I know it’s not exactly my business to ask but… What’s the deal with your back?” Three’s ears pricked, _ah._ That. That probably wasn’t the best way to word that now was it. Mismatched eyes flicked upwards anxiously towards the other. 

It had been just a little over a month since Eight had settled herself comfortable in Three’s not so humble but still comfy abode and somehow this question had never popped up. The pairs jumbled mess of scars, bruises, scratches and notches we’re not exactly something either thought would be a fun discussion topic.

A thoughtful hum left Eight, causing Three to sigh in relief. That didn’t sound specifically annoyed with her wording. Good. Cool. No damage done there. 

“Well. It was cause of the bomb they had strapped to my backpack, they-” 

“BOMB? Eight, what in fucking _blazes_ do you mean bomb?! They blew you up?!”  
“Yeah! Kinda!” 

_HOW WAS SHE SO CHEERFUL ABOUT THIS?_

“B-But… But?! Like… How!?”

As traumatic as what happened down in that dusty old station, for some odd reason the Inkling’s reaction to it all made the whole situation seem almost funny to her. An odd snort left her as she continued her explanation.

“When I was doing those, uh, test thingies. They strapped this weird looking thing to the bottom of my pack. I tried to ask what it was but no one on the station would tell me, not even CQ!” 

“CQ?” 

“I never told you about CQ?! Oh my god he was so funny! He was this, uh. This little sea cucumber! With a little hat! He took me places on the train and gave me points for doing tests! He was really nice!” 

Squinting, Three quirked a brow. “Sure sounds like a nice dude, not telling you you had a cod damn explosive strapped to your pack.” It came out as more of a mumble at this point, scowl still ever present. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. He was still funny! And super squishy!! Anyways, Every time I failed a test they’d detonate it and. It was- uh… Well, It wasn’t pleasant!” An uncomfortable sounding chuckle left her beak, tentacle tips twirling and curving other one another beneath her chin. “It always destroyed my form immediately but… I guess it was big enough to leave a lasting impression on _me_ … Not just my form.” 

“Was… The explosion seriously so bad it did something like… Like _that?_ ” Three couldn’t even begin to fathom what that must be like, to blow such a nasty wound in someone like that… The thought made her feeling vaguely sick.

“Oh uh, I can’t really say for sure because I… Failed like. A lot of tests.” 

“How… Many?”

“Oh I dunno… Eighty… Eighty-Five percent… Of them.” 

“EIGHT! How could you fail that many?!” 

“You weren’t there! You didn’t how hard they were!!” 

Three scoffed in disbelief. “Surely they weren't that hard, right?! You’re smart!” 

“I’m so flattered you don’t think I’m as much as a colossal dumbass as you.” 

“Wait, now hang on a minu-” 

“But seriously!” Eight interrupted quickly “They were REALLY fucking difficult! I had to line up these three huge balls in a line on a four by four grid and it was so hard! They kept bouncing all over the place!” 

“...Y-You got _blown up_ over _Tic Tac Toe?_ ” 

“Well. _**Yeah?**_ ” 

“Tic Tac Toe isn’t even difficult?! How did you fuck that one up! You weren’t even playing against anyone, right?” 

“I was playing against _myself_ , Three.” 

Two hands were raised to the Inklings face a moment after she managed to worm them out of Eights grip to tug at her own face in exasperation. How an ex-military soldier was this fucking dumb Three would never know. 

“You find new ways to surprise me every single day.” Was the only thing she could really think to say.

“Awh, Three, you’re so sweet!” 

Compliment or not, Three couldn't stop that trickle of anger running through her. What kind of fucking awful _awful_ place blows people up for not being able to complete a simple task?! What the fuck!? … _I guess this is the same place that tried to blend people alive so, not too unbelievable._

No real responses was given to Eight’s words aside from a weird snort before the two fell quiet for a few more minutes. Three didn’t quite understand why silences between the two could be so different. Sometimes they were the worst thing in the cod damn world and made Three want to melt into the floorboards, yet other times they were something she found herself being kind of wishing it happened more often. 

Was that weird? No of course it wasn’t weird, shut up. 

“Is it doing okay?” 

“Is what?” 

“Your back… Are the bandages helping, is it hurting recently or what?” 

“Well. I still can’t sleep on my back, which sucks, but it feels a lot better than it did when I first got here!“

She could say that again, Three grimaced as she recalled seeing that first drop of blood hit her carpet from Eight’s back the morning the two got back. That shit was _hard_ to get out of carpet. 

“...Good” 

“I honestly know it’d be a whole lot worse if it wasn’t for you going absolutely insane trying to get me to bandage my back all the time.” 

“I-It’s important, dipshit!” A loud huff followed pretty quick as she scowled. “I’m not gonna let your infected ass walk around my pl-” 

Three’s attempt at scolding was cut off as she was suddenly pulled forward in a tight embrace, granted she was already being held before but now? Most of her was shoved right up against the Octarian’s body. If she lent forward a little more her face would be hitting the other’s ear. This was almost too much contact. 

“So thank you Three…” 

It was… Odd to hear Eight so soft and sincere sounding, even with the situation earlier Three was pretty sure she’d never be used to her being so soft sounding. Such a tone caused her insides to feel like a freshly blended smoothie. I.E: Fucking Weird. This morning was surely a lot, it definitely didn’t help that she could feel Eight’s warmth on her bare skin and- Wait.

Crushing realisation came down faster than Three could’ve expected as she was now locked in one of those stupid hugs turned death grips Eight was so _great_ at giving and wearing nothing but a flimsy towel. This wasn’t her day, was it? A panicked, scrambled shove came next as she pushed her hand against the other to try and get away, a free hand moving to grip the top of her towel, managing to worm her way out once Eight realised she was trying to escape. 

Falling backwards for a second, Three hit the ground. No beats were missed as she once again scrambling to stand up. Her face now a neon lime green as she cleared her throat. The smug look and aura Eight was giving off right now didn’t help in in the whole ‘I’m mad at you and absolutely not flustered and have this entire situation under control’ situation. 

Eight’s ears twitched for a moment… Something didn’t feel right. Looking down at her shirt, she grimaced.. Various wet patches from the recently cleansed Inkling had soaked their way through.“Three… you got my shirt all wet!” 

“Y-You! You dragged me there, made me sit there like some dumb lap slug-” 

“You stayed there.”

An undignified noise left Three at such a statement. Uh _excuse me_ , Eight. For one, she stayed there because she was _cold_. She’d just gotten out of the shower and it was COLD in this apartment, Thank you very much! Unable to come up with a response, another weird noise left her throat, hand clasping the top of her towel straightening it out before she flicked her head back in some weird attempt to show that none of this was getting to her. Tentacles shifting with the sudden movement as she mumbled something about getting some clothes on, the distant sound of her footsteps cut off by the sudden slam of the door down the hall. 

Eight could stop the smile reaching her face. Three was so odd, nothing like she thought she would’ve been. Granted, it hadn’t exactly been TOO long, there could still be a bloodthirsty killer Inkling waiting to beat her up yet!... _Nah._ Even for Three, that was generous. Wet shirt suddenly discarded with no warning, Eight decided to check on her little Squee-G project and water her plant real quick. It was wet, she liked being free, who was around to stop her! 

Her mind, that’d clearly been elsewhere when coming up with that ridiculous thought, returned pretty quickly once Three had reappeared and began to make an odd high pitched wheezing sound in response to the very exposed Octoling standing in her living room holding a watering can. Quite the wake up call if seeing that god awful scar wasn’t enough already, here’s one bare Octoling just for you, Three! 

“EIGHT.” 

“Whhhaat? Can’t you just let me be shirtless for like. An hour? It’s liberating!” 

Being slapped with the shirt she’d discarded moments before seemed to be the only answer she’d be getting.

“Fiiine.” 

Aside from the few minor blips that living in each other's breathing spaces came with. (Like with Eight attempting to “spice up their usual dinner” by trying to pour an entire cups worth of sugar into a pot of soup. Eight was then promptly banned from ever doing anything near the kitchen ever.) Three found herself yet again dumbfounded with how much she actually _liked_ having Eight up in her business. Her company was valued more than she wanted to really admit. It was… Weird to say the least.

If it wasn’t obvious by how clearly killer her social skills were on a day to day basis, Three never really found herself craving the company of others. Because who the fuck needed friends to survive and feel happy, certainly not she! Fuck you, Eight, for making her wrong about all of that. _**Fuck you.**_

This all came crashing down on her when Eight decided to visit Marina and Pearl for the day, nothing wrong with that, of course. Three would rather sing every squid sisters song on repeat in front of the entire square than spend the day with those two but who was she to stop Eight from doing what she wanted. Of course, there was the slight worry about Eight getting there herself but turns out Pearl had read her mind. Or was just being extra. Since she’d sent an entire god damn limo to their apartment.

Three couldn’t deny she was kind of jealous and sort of wanted a look inside but she wasn’t going to be roped into going to their place! No siree! She’d spend the day home alone eating cheese snacks and playing video games like a normal adult with nothing to do.

And, y’know, hey, her day was going exactly as planned! Lounging around in her boxers without having to worry about Eight barging in and wanting to do something stupid like climb on the roof and watch the sunrise. Nope! None of that dumb stuff today! By the time it had reached noon, Three still hadn’t moved from her sofa position, tentacles draped onto the floor and controller held lazily in her hand as she laid sideways with her head tilted. 

It was the eventual cold creeping in from somewhere that forced her to move from her comfort spot, which she was none too happy about. A hand moving up to scratch at her side as she entered her bedroom, looking at the mess of the bed in front of her. It was odd to think about how Eight’s little sofa set up had suddenly been upgraded to full bed after Splatfest. The absolute mess of the sheets on both sides instead of just one was a grim reminder of how much she fidgeted during the night. Most of the pillows on Eight’s side were thrown to the ground, in typical Eight fashion. No, Three was not smiling at the thought, not at all.

Ignoring said disaster bed, she turned to her closet. Right. Blanket time. That super soft one her mom got her was in here right? She only saved that for the winter months and yeah sure, it was getting colder, but today was a special occasion! She was having a video game day. It was important.

_Three!_

The agent’s ears perked, currently headfirst into her rather dark closet, the last thing she would’ve expected was to hear her name. Tugging away from rooting through clothes and whatever the hell else was stashed in there, she glanced around…. Huh. Chuckling softly to herself, Three returned to her quest on finding that blanket. A couple of hours without Eight by her side and she was already losing it.

“Three!” 

“ **AH!** ” 

Jerking her head immediately upwards after a rather loud bang followed after her name caused her to slam her head against the shelf residing in her closet. Shoulders immediately jumped up to hunch as she gripped her head. She’d be more worried about potential damage to her nonexistent skull if the shout of her name didn’t sound so… So _real._

Her hand swiped at the air in front of her in attempt to find something heavy in case of defensive needs, spinning around with a glare and holding out her chosen weapon: a stuffed Pikachu plushie by the tail in a threatening manner. “H-Hey! Whoever the fucks there! Show yourself! I can swing this thing pretty fuckin’ hard and you won’t like it when I’m mad! I’m a trained agent I have a license to fuck you up!” 

“Three, over here! Hey hey! Can ya let me in?” 

Her vision was directed towards the window, currently casting the room in semi-darkness since the blinds were drawn. That seemed to be where the sound was coming from at least. Lowering her “I’m going to fuck you up” stance she moved to draw the blinds back with a hesitant touch, Three’s entire expression shifted to a weird mix of confusion and anger. 

“Four?! What the everloving fuck are you doing outside my window! I live on the fourteenth floor!” 

“Fifthteenth, actually, can you let me in? It’s cold out here!” 

Usually, on any other account, Three would be opposed to letting this little pipsqueak into her humble abode but _usually_ people didn’t try to get into her house this way. “If you’re trying to rob me i swear to fuckin’ cod, Four.” With a loud sigh, she pushed the handle in and turned it to the right forcing the window open. 

Hopping in with a small noise of triumph, Four brushed themselves down. Before grinning up at Three, receiving a scowl in response only got that smile to widen. Ugh. _Dumb Pest._

“Why are you here?” Slamming the window shut, Three quirked a brow at this uninvited bug that’d managed to get into her apartment. 

“Duuh. I’m here to check on my favourite agent! And how you’re getting along with Eight and all.” Four moved over to the messed up bed, removing their backpack with a quick wiggle and placing it gently down. 

“Wow. I’m flattered. Get out.” A hand was harshly pointed towards the open bedroom door, a growl leaving her when Four continued. 

“So how has it been with you too? I’m guessing she’s still in your residence cause this place-” they quickly unzipped the bag, reaching inside to tug out their phone and toss it onto the bed. “Kinda looks like a disaster.” 

Folding her arms, Three snorted. “For your information, Four, my bedroom _always_ looks like this and- W-WHAT IS THAT?!” 

Sure, Four had pulled their phone from the backpack, that was fine and all. But whatever the fuck they were pulling out of their now caused Three to shift back a little. It was huge! And blue! And- 

“WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!” 

“Hey! Don’t be rude, she is not a that!” Four looked a little ruffled by the comment, lifting out whatever was in their bag and placing it onto the bed. “Her name is Seabreeze.” 

_Another Octarian._ What the fuck. 

“Did you… Steal that?” 

“What? No!” Two different sounding voices rose up, speaking the exact same words caused Three to flinch. For some odd reason she wasn’t expecting the Octarian sitting on her bed to speak up.

“She knows Inkling?...”

“Well, duh? She lives here? Doesn’t Agent Eight know Inkling too?” Four took a seat on the bed aside their Octarian friend, who had shifted back to her humanoid form. 

Her tentacles were a deep blue fading into a soft purple, skin a beautiful dark color. Such a stark contrast between her tentacles that even Three was taken aback by the Octoling’s appearance. The two looked around the same size sitting side by side, both looking up at Three with expressions she couldn’t quite put her finger on… 

“Well, yeah, of course she knows Inkling but, she… Learnt that while down on the metro. Marinara or whoever taught her a lot.” 

“Oh Marina?! From Off the Hook?!” 

Three grit her beak. “... Yes.” 

“That’s so cool… To be able to be taught a different language by a famous idol too! Eight’s truly livin’ the dream ain’t she?” 

Seabreeze cocked her head towards Four. “But… _I_ was taught by a famous idol, remember? Marie helped us? Aren’t those two… Famous idols?” 

Four’s ears perked at her friend speaking up, hunching their shoulders a little. “Oh!! OH right, right!” 

Three really needed a moment to take this all in. Cod, had she even woke up today? It surely didn’t feel like it. Marie teaching an Octarian anything sounded fishy to her, moving her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. This felt like a headache situation. Cod damn it! Couldn’t she have one video game day in peace! 

“Alright, ALRIGHT. Both of you, stop. Marie wouldn’t teach an Octarian anythin’ to my knowledge and if so you are one lucky Octarian. Cause she _hates_ anything Octarian related, I would know. She wouldn’t stop spouting it down my throat when I was younger.” 

The two shared a look before looking up at Three, clearly confused.

“Look that’s a real fuckin long story and I, it doesn’t matter anyways does it?! Why the fuck are you two even here!” 

Scoffing, Four reached into her bag to pull out what appeared to be two orange flavoured juice boxes, handing one to Seabreeze, before turning back to Three. “Duuh, I already told you, I’m here to check on you and Eight.” 

“Why would you ever need to do that. Me and Eight are fine, We’re just livin’ life. Avoiding little brats like you. The usual.” 

Four’s incredibly obnoxious slurping through their straw was beginning to make Three tick. 

“Well, I was just wonderin’ if you two are doin’ okay like. Relationship wise!” 

“Excuse me?” 

“Me and Bree both agreed ya don’t really seem like the type to ever have good relationships, always so mad and stuffy with stuff. Never open, always shouting. We thought that now that you and Eight are dating that you would’ve mellowed out. The display on the stage was really cute though, right Bree?” 

The Octoling gave a quick nod, keeping her eyes set directly on Three. Who right at this moment was taking a rather extended mental check out. Her and Eight were _what now?_ When was this discussed? Weren’t they just roommates? What the fuck? No, she was _**NOT**_ blushing, shut up. Several attempts of opening her mouth to speak and then clamping it shut occurred before she finally found her voice.

“Who.. Told you we were dating?” 

“Well ain’t it kinda obvious? You’re always with her and seem to go all shades of green when around her. You obviously like her company, you two are in the plaza all the time playing with each other and talking. You guys turf together and whenever you’re on the same team you seem _awfully_ protective of each other.” 

“It’s quite the impressive display, really. You two make an interesting team.” Seabreeze chimed in before returning to her drink. 

“The whole Splatfest stage situation sorta confirmed it for us. So many other people were like ‘wow what a cute couple’ and all that. So we decided to visit! And check how everything’s going!”  
“We… We’re not dating.” 

Three could’ve sworn she heard the sound of a record scratching to a stop looking at the pair’s faces at her response. 

It was a solid minute before anyone spoke in the room, and it wasn’t even really words that spoke first, it was a gentle smack delivered to Four’s arm by Seabreeze.

“Hey! You _said_ that you were POSITIVE they were dating, we spent ages on that pinboard! You were so certain!” 

“Pinboard?” 

“I mean, like, c’mon. It’s clearly obvious Three likes her! Was I wrong to assume such things, Bree?” 

“Yes, we broke into their house!” 

“Correction! Tried too! But wasn’t that kinda fun?” 

“Okay, you were right that was extremely fun.” 

“WOAH WOAH. _HOLD_ ON.” Raising her voice caused Three to cough into her fist after, glaring the pair down. There was a lot to take in from this but first of all, she had something she needed to lay down on the table. Something important. 

“I do _not_ like, nor am I interested in Agent Eight, both you little shits got that?” The pointed finger swapped between the two, a glare rivalling the strictest turfing instructors on the planet coating her face. Yet the pair seemed completely un-phased. 

It took exactly four seconds after for both of them to burst into laughter. Three’s ears folding back as she formed a half pout half scowl on her face. How _dare_ they laugh at her! 

“Pffft! Alright, that’s a good one, Three. Ya got me there.” Wiping a fake tear from their eye, Four crossed their leg, taking another loud sip of their drink.

“I do not! How on earth would you _ever_ come to that conclusion! Eight’s just my… responsibility, my roommate, I guess if I really stretched it she’s my friend too.” 

_C’mon Three, she’s your best friend at this point. You know that._

_Shut it, Three, No one wants to hear it from some dickhead like you._

“Oh my god, Four, She’s serious…” Seabreeze flashed a worried look to the Inkling next to her. The two taking a moment to look at the floor, before Four finally looked up to Three.

“So, Three.”  
“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off out of my apartment a few minutes ago? Why aren’t you getting to that?!” 

“I wanna ask you a few questions regarding Eight…” With their legs crossed, Four leant forward. 

“Absolutely not.” With her arms now in front of her in an X motion, this was a clear no. 

“Awh, Four, you don’t have your lil clipboard! This would’ve been perfect for that!” Bree piped in, pouting a little as Four gasped in response.

“Dang it! You’re right... Nevermind... Anyways. So, you ever feel weird around Eight? Like kinda, sick even?” They lent a little more forward if possible, gesturing their juice box towards her. 

“Mn… Not really? Sometimes?” Why she was even responding at this point, Three didn’t know, arms folded and shoulders hunched.

“Hmn. You like Eight right?” 

“I mean, I guess. Yeah. Sure.”

“Okay. That’s something, now, you ever think about being close to her a lot? Do you… _want_ to be closer to her?” 

Three couldn’t tell if the other agent meant close as in relationship or close as in contact but both were making a light green hue dust her cheeks at the thought. “I-I dunno, maybe?” 

“Do you wanna hold her hand sometimes? Like. You ever just wanna take it?” The almost teasing tone in Four’s voice went unnoticed by Three as she actually took the question in. Did she want that? Was that something she actually wanted? 

So lost in thought, her mouth was running without her even realising it. “Sometimes… Her claw’s are weirdly soft. Whenever she grabs my wrist it's such a surprise but I guess like I never mind it or anything.” 

“Oh so you do like her then?” There was the teasing that Three finally picked up on, her ears twitching in response to her finally noticing. 

“W-What no?! You literally have zero proof of th-”

“This bed smells like another Octarian is taking residence here.” 

Seabreeze’s words had turned whatever Three was rambling on about into garbled flustered sounds in a matter of seconds as she tried to find her voice. 

“N-No! That’s because of-”

“You guys sleep in the same bed and you haven’t told her yet?” Four quirked a brow, a rather mischievous looking smirk. As hypocritical as this was for Four for _certain_ reasons, this is the route they really wanted to go down. They wanted to pin Three against the wall and make her say that she liked Eight because dang it! They knew she did! 

“T-Told her what?!” 

“That you like her! Like… Romantically ‘n junk!” 

“I-I don’t!” This was starting to get a little much for the agent, her tentacles were becoming slicked from the stress of it all. Did she like Eight? Had she been sleeping on feelings this entire time? 

Blue eyes flickered over to the pair, and Three felt everything falling apart. Both were staring at her intensely, as if waiting for some kind of answer. The agent never did do great under pressure.

“I-I do NOT like Eight! We-e’ve gotten closer since she arrived and I a-a-appreciate her company around the house but I-I-I DON’T see her like that! T-That would be weird! Sure she’s pretty! Sure she has soft claws and a laugh that could t-turn heads but that d-doesn’t mean I like her!” Hands quickly swept upwards to snatch at her left tentacle, squeezing and tugging on it. “L-Like sure, she has a nice face and her tentacles are this nice color and they wiggle when shes excited. They do all sorts of things when she's happy. And like, she has this lopsided smile and all these bioluminescent freckles that are like… Unfairly pretty to look at but I don’t- I d-don’t like her!” A quick tug on said tentacle ended that sentence, Three wincing as even though it was self inflicted pain, it still _hurt._

Stuffy was a great word to describe the silence suddenly flooding the room, Three’s face flushed a rather unattractive looking puke color. Her ink color was never exactly the nicest to begin with, now was it? Eyes mere pinpricks as she waited for some kind of reaction. Some kind of words from the duo. 

“Hey, where’s your phone?” Four had began to swivel round, looking over the room, much to the others confusion.

“...W-Why?” 

“I need to set up a date with Eight for you because this is- Ah!” 

The smaller agent’s magenta eyes finally landed on Three’s phone resting quietly on the side table charging. Cursing her mind for taking so long to connect the dots, Three’s shoulders jumped.

“N-NO!” 

It seemed Four wasn’t one to miss a beat, understanding there was no way they were going to get that phone with their resident closeted lesbian looking like a bull ready to charge. Think quick, Four! 

“Bree, pin her down!” 

In a flash of blue the Octarian had shifted to more or less bodyblock the flustered Inkling, giving her a rather daring look. 

“Uh, Seabreeze, was it? Would you mind moving?” 

“Nope.” 

_Well._

Those little gremlin hands were already skimming through Three’s contacts, not a whole lot it seemed. Finding Eight was as easy as finding an Off the Hook advertisement in the Square (IE: Very. Easy) They knew they only had a small window of time to pull of this question and to make it sound very Three esque, fingers tapping against the screen while Bree had now resorted to using her hands to hold the Inkling back.

Why the _fuck_ was she so strong!?

A rather harsh shove on Three’s end to try and push past and reclaim her phone resulted in her being shoved back twice as hard, stumbling a little as she bared her teeth. She was _getting_ that phone. 

“Alright _Seabreeze._ I see talking about this with words isn’t going to be the normal, calm way to settle this. I’m sorry but this is a life or death situation and I need you to get out of my wa-AAAAY” Attempting to charge at the other, Three had smacked against the ground stomach first a moment later. It turns out Seabreeze was the kind of no shit taken Octoling. Said Octarian had jumped up high enough to press the bottom of her shoes right down into the charging Agent’s shoulders, causing her to flop down immediately with a loud yelp.

Meanwhile Four was really doing their best to make this sound as Three-esque as possible, which was proving harder to be. Three seemed to scream a lot, would she use all caps? Or not. Better look through some of this conversation history, huh?

“Hey, Three, would you be the kinda person to use the word exquisite?” 

“AAAAAH PLEASE GET OFF THAT _HURTS._ ” 

“I’m gonna take that as a no.”  


 

* * *

“Watcho starin’ at your phone like that for? You win something?”  
Pearl’s voice broke Eight out of her thoughts. The Octarian was currently visiting her two residents moms very very _very_ large house, and Pearl had gone about making her something nice to eat forever, since apparently she didn’t believe Three was feeding her properly or something. Oh! And her tentacles were tied in a bun!! She liked it when her tentacles were tied in a bun like that. It suited her! 

“Hmn? What? Oh! No no. I just got a text from Three is all!” 

The soft sizzle from Pearl pressing the spatula down on _whatever_ exactly she was cooking caused Eight’s ears to perk. Dang, she wanted food. She always wanted food but dang she fucking wanted food. She making pancakes, at least by the smell of it she was.She wasn’t entirely sure but food was food. Who cares!! Certainly not she! 

“Man, you ‘n Three been kinda inseparable lately huh? You hung around each other all Splatfest!”

“Well, Three didn’t want me to get lost. Also its kinda funny to see her get mad when she fucks up at something.” A soft giggle passed her beak at the thought. 

“Ya better not be gawkin’ at your phone the entire day, though. Me ‘n ‘Reena wanna hang with you too!!” 

As if on cue, Marina entered the room, glasses perched on the tip of her nose, expression shifting to one of interest. “Oh, Pearlie those smell so good!!” 

Ever the confident one, she flashed a grin at her partner, raising the spatula and almost posing with it. “Ya know it babe!” 

Taking a seat next to Eight, it became increasingly impossible to ignore the soft smile as the Octarian clutched her phone. Eyes flicking to Pearl for a moment before back to seemingly happy Octoling. “So… Something good happening I assume?” 

“Yeah, actually! Three asked me if I wanted to go out and get something to eat sometime! They sounded really fancy and professional about it so it must be an important type deal, y’know?” 

Hmn! Silence! Eight didn’t like that! 

“Is… That a bad thing?” 

“Can I see your phone?” A clawed hand was extended out to her from Marina’s side. Had she done something wrong? Because hoo. Hoo boy did it feel like it. 

Glasses now pushed up with a single finger, Marina began to read through the text, slowly placing the phone down after. The sizzling of food was the only sound between the trio before she cleared her throat.

“Eight, you… Do understand what this means, don’t you?” 

A sharp nod was given in response “Yeah, Three wants to get me some good food instead of take out for once! Ain’t that sweet?” 

“I thought you’d die for take out?” Pearl piped up, cocking her head.

“Oh, I would but hey! Fancy food! Never had that!” 

“... Eight. Uh, How can I put this lightly.” Marina tapped a claw to her lip, wondering how to word it without it coming down too heavily on the girl.

“Woah woah, ‘Reena. The fuck did Three say to her? I’ll fuck her up if its anythin’ bad, hell _You’ll_ fuck her up, what she say to Eight.” Pearl had been been close to Marina for such a long time now, so recognising different cues from her girlfriend's body language came as natural to her as screaming did. 

“ _Pearl_. It’s nothing bad, really.” The way Marina said her name made Eight’s skin crawl for some odd reason. “Anyways, Eight.” The trickle of anxiety than ran down her back could not really be explained in worded form because _Oh fuck._

“Three isn’t… _Just_ asking you out to food. She. She’s asking you out on a date… Like. A proper date.” It was a little perplexing on how she missed the obvious word date in that text, maybe she didn’t know? It was hard to tell, an Octoling new to the surface could be such a wildcard of what they knew and what they didn’t. Marina knew from experience. 

“Like… Uh.”

“OhhhHHOHOH. ‘Reena are you forreal?!” It seemed the shorter of the trio was rather excited about all of this, hopping from foot to foot. “Oh my _COD._ ” 

“Pearlie, your pancakes?”

“OH SHIT.” 

Thankfully, now that Pearl was tending to her food rather than butting into the conversation, she could have at least a few seconds without her commentary to talk to Eight. Whisking the poor girl away to another room seemed like a bad plan anyways, she could already see the registered nerves on her face. 

“You know what a date is, right?”

“Well. _Duh!_ A date, is like uhhh. Today’s a date! ‘Oh today's date is’. Y’know that sorta stuff? Date also rhymes with my name!” Confidence burst from the Octarian as she explained what was _clearly_ the only meaning for the word, her assurance on the subject drew a chuckle out of Marina. 

“No no, That’s one meaning for the word date. The other like.. Hmn” How was she going to explain this!? Had Eight come in contact with anything romantic up here? Since relationships were totally different up here compared to beneath the surface… 

“Three’s got the hots for ya, it seems.” The clinking sound of a plate drew Marina out of her thoughts as two plates of hot pancakes were presented to the two. “She wants to take you, romantic and all. I didn’t think she’d be the one to ask though.” 

_Wait, what?_

Eight froze for a moment, not even the enticing smell of pancakes could draw her out of this one. Was she hearing right? Of course she knew about romance, vaguely, somewhat, TV taught better than actually researching and experience shit! But still, what in the _shit._ Three _**liked**_ her? Like that??? WHAT. She felt hot, yet cold. All sorts of things at once. A fluttering in her chest. She felt like she was walking on air, but also going to vomit all over the table.

“Look at that, Marina, She’s totally fuckin’ gone. Twitterpated.”

“Pearl, that. That might've been the best and worst time for you to use that word.” 

By the time Eight had come back from Lesbian Central, the two had already tucked into their food. Her eyes mere pinpricks as she glanced between the two of them. “A-Are you SURE? That’s what she means by that?” 

“‘Reena showed me-” taking a moment to swallow, the tiny idol continued. “Showed me the text, she _straight up_ says ‘on a date’ Eight, she wants to take you out on a date.” 

Pearl coughed or a moment, fist held against her mouth. "More like gay up." 

" _Pearlie..._ "

“B-But when, we didn’t even discuss a time?” 

“Well you can ask and set that stuff all up yourself, Eight! I’m sure Three would be eager to-”

“ **HEY HEY** , HOLY SHIT.” Slamming her fist down on the table seemed to get the attention Pearl was after, both Octolings turning to look at her. “‘REENA. I CAN GET ‘EM RESERVATIONS AT THAT DOPE PLACE TONIGHT. YOU KNOW THE ONE?” 

“The one that… That’s like really stuffy?”

“YEAH THAT ONE! It’ll be perfect for a first date!” 

“W-Wait wouldn’t like-”

“HOOOLY SHIT. Okay. ‘Reena. I’’m gonna go contact that place, you text Three back for me alright? We gotta set this up, do it for Eight.”

“G-Guys wait.” 

“Wait a minute, Pearlie, does Eight even want to do this? We haven’t even asked her??” 

“I do! But I-”

“It’s SETTLED. We need to get this shit rollin’ ‘Reena or they won’t let them in! It’s important!” Scoffing the rest of her food down, Pearl was about to dash off before she was more or less plucked off the ground by her partner. “H-Hey hey hey! What’s the big idea?!” 

“Pearlie, she has nothing to WEAR. We can’t let Eight go on a date wearing something unappealing!” 

“I was just gonna wear jeans a t-shirt actually, oh! And some really nice shoes I picked up earlier from-” 

“No!” Both idols combined voices made her flinch, looking between the two utterly confused. Cod, was everything she said wrong today?!

“Eight, you have to wear something nice! First dates are important!” 

“I got SO many outfits here, ‘Reena, don’t worry about that. She’ll clean up nice, get to textin’ Three I got reservations to set up!” Finally worming her way out of Marina’s grip like the slippery little Inkling she was Pearl dashed around the corner out of sight. 

“P-PEARL WAIT! What time do I even say to her!?” 

“ **EIGHT. N-NO NO, SEVEN THIRTY!** ” Despite being out of the room her booming vocals were still picked up as if she never left.

Finally alone, Marina sighed, turning to the clearly nerve ridden Octoling. “Don’t worry too much about it, Pearl likes blowing things up. She took me to see a fireworks display on our first date… In her own backyard. Oh! And don’t worry too much about _me_ writing the text, you’ll be writing it but I’ll be here just... “ 

“Just?” 

“Just making sure everything's… Okay.” On the receiving end of a rather harsh squint, Marina coughed. “Proofreading and all that.” 

“Marina, do I look like the kind of Octoling who proofreads their texts?”

“Mn… Fine, fair point.” 

 

* * *

“Ughhh... Pleaseee… Get off me.” 

It’d been a solid couple of minutes since Four had sent that text and it was starting to worry them. Was Eight not interested in Three? Had they been wrong? Had Seabreeze probably bruised Three in various places for no reason?

_Ping!_

Nevermind, this was worth it. This was _perfect!_

“Three!! THREE, you’re never gonna believe this!!” 

“Mnnh…” 

“You got a date! Tonight! Literally _tonight!_ Eight says she’s got reservations at a real nice place and everything!!!” 

Apparently the feeling of realising you’ve been set up with someone you only found out was in fact your crush a few minutes ago was enough of a boost to give Three all she needed to sit bolt upright and push Seabreeze off of her. Jumping to her feet and stomping over to the frustrating little shit still sitting on her bed, she looked flushed. And tired. “I’m. I’m not going to yell but the _fuck_ do you _**mean.**_ ” 

“Lookie! Here, Eight texted me back! It’s kinda long!” Turning the phone to her, she squinted in response before starting to read. “Left a heart too!” 

A lot to take in here. Three didn’t know where to start. For one, she was going to strangle Four for doing this and kick the two out _immediately._ For two. _**EIGHT AGREED????**_ Didn’t this only happen to like. Famous people and girls who didn’t have disgusting scars on their face??? 

“You’re gonna go on a date with her!” 

Raising two hands to her face, she pressed them harshly down, digging her claws into her skin. “Why didn’t I let that stupid metal fish eat me whole.”

“W-What? Aren’t you excited?” 

“No! I feel like I’m going to throw up!” Her hands were tossed away from her face in a fit of frustration, teeth bared. “Why did you _do_ that!? Four, I-If I wanted to ask Eight on a date I would’ve done so! I can’t even begin with how fucking angry I am with you! Get out of my apartment, both of you!” With her claws out of their sheaths, she pointed towards the door, scowling.

“But.. Who’s gonna help you with outfit choices?” 

“Oh _NO._ You aren’t helping with ANYTHING else today, Four. You've done enough fucking damage, get the fuck out, _NOW!_ ” Another aggressive jab to the door.

“Oh, so you’re actually going?” Seabreeze’s voice caught both of their attention as she stood up to dust herself down. “I thought you weren’t into her?” 

The face Seabreeze was met was one of startled dread, ears pointed downwards slightly at her comment. 

“Haaaah. She totally got you.” 

“W-Why the fuck do you twerps even fucking care! Get out! It’s my date! You aren’t helping with anymore shit!” 

“Like I said, Outfit Choices.” Four repeated, crossing their arms. 

“ _ **No**_ , Four. You are not helping with this anymore, I can pick my own outfits and-”

“Do you even know what Eight likes?”

Granted, she knew a quite a lot about what Eight liked. Eight liked food, but that didn’t mean she was going to go dressed as an egg or anything. But her type? Three was clueless to any of that.

“What makes you think _you_ know.”

“I was right about the soda, wasn’t I? Cherry, right?”

Oh, fucking. Come on! That was just a stupid stroke of luck! Four knew that!! Fuck! 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, I’m not letting you of all people dress me” Three spat. No fucking way. 

“That’s a shame, Miss Three.” _Ugh. Again with this!_ “Four has quite the impeccable taste in fashion, they’d be able to make you look fantastic in just about anything.” 

If Three was honest with her stubborn, stupid self, she would have NO idea what to wear for this evening. Ugh… Even thinking about it made her stomach twist. This felt so wrong, so odd… So scary? From the looks of just half skimming the text, the place that was picked was Fancy. Was she really going to do this?

“Four got you this far, didn’t they? You’re in good tentacles.” 

Apparently so. 

“Alright. _**Alright.**_ Fine. Cross this off as one of the worst decisions I’ll ever make, but _fine._ You can _assist_ in picking out an outfit. Nothing over the top. You better not make me looking like a walking joke, Four” 

“Awh, Three. You do that all the time already! Just by being you!” 

Seabreeze snorting at Four’s stupid line didn’t help as Three swallowed a rather harsh insult, taking a backseat for the moment to collect herself. All the while Four and Seabreeze had began their trek to completely tear apart Three’s closet in an attempt to find SOMETHING decent.

There sure was a lot going on today, wasn’t there? She wasn’t even sure if she was ready for this kind of thing. A relationship of some kind… With Eight of all people? Didn’t she consistently ruin her mornings, piss her off, make her yell and all of the above? Yes. Yes, she did. But she also managed to do unspeakable things to the poor Inkling’s heart, without her even realising. Years of trying to repress so many things had a lot of sour outcomes, one in particular being particularly decent at suppressing emotions. Swallowing them and keeping them down was a skill she wasn’t exactly proud of by any means.

And unfortunately, that went along hand in hand for a lot of things Three was currently feeling. It had been quite a bit since Eight had first arrived and bled all over her carpet, long enough for Three to start missing her company whenever the two were apart for an extended amount of time. The more thought she put into it, the more it came less rushing more slapping at full force right at her face how much she cared about Eight… Dang it. Fucking feelings ruining shit.  


 

* * *

“Guys, I hate to break this to you because I know we’ve been at this for the past two hours but I don’t think this is gonna be something that Three likes… because I sure as hell don’t like it.” 

Eight liked simple things. If she was going to going on one of these dates, she’d want to be casual. Jeans. A t-shirt. You know, what normal people would do, yet her reflection read anything but. Tentacles twisted upwards and pulled into a neat little bun at the back of her head, the tips at the bottom of the bun wiggling in protest of being made to stay in that position. Her hairband was a little crown, courtesy of Pearl of course. 

Her full outfit on the other hand? Was a little too over the top for the poor Octarian. A long almost flowing dress that went into her waist and fanned out near the bottom, It fit her pretty surprisingly well too! Everything below the waist was covered, so she could totally wear slippers under this if she wanted too... Totally not what was going through her mind either, nope! 

A ribbon was tied around her waist and tied at the back, the dress itself was a soft pink fading into a light purple and then blue. It almost looked some kind of pastel sunset. It was a nice dress all in all- but she couldn’t exactly admit she liked this outfit all that much.

“Awh, C’mon! Eight we spent forever diggin’ this out of my closet!” The pout from Pearl made her feel _vaguely_ guilty.

“I-It’s not that its not pretty or anything but this really isn’t my kind of style! I don’t think Three’d like it…” 

A hum from across the room made the well dressed Octarian’s ears twitch. “I must admit, it’s nothing like your usual attire, but the point of a date is to impress, you know? I know this is probably out of your comfort zone but I’m at least ninety seven percent sure Three’ll like it. She seems to be the type to be easily impressed anyways.”

Any attempt as an argument was silenced because cod damn it she was right.

Eight gave herself another look in the mirror. It really did look so uncanny, like she was staring at someone she’d never met before. Marina and Pearl probably knew more about this than she did, so she guessed she’d just have to trust them! 

Taking a breath her hand was balled into a fist, performing a mini fist bump before smiling at herself in the mirror. “Alright, whatever you guys say! Even if this bow is… Kind of itchy.”

“You’ll get used to it, dresses can be a total pain in the ass at first but you look stunning, Eight. Right ‘Reena?” 

“I’ve never seen her in formal wear before, it’s honestly such a nice change! You should clean up like this more often!” 

“Maybe!” 

Absolutely not, never again.  


 

* * *

“I look like a fucking clown.”

Hmn! The lesson of _not trusting a sixteen year old and their friend to dress you up was really suckerpunching the poor agent. Part of her brain was really punishing her for letting this happen but the other part was so filled with _ **date**_ thoughts she couldn’t even bring herself to care that much. Maybe a little._

__

“We made you look less like a clown! You should be thanking us!” 

Another glance at the apparel made Three grimace. An old leather jacket she hadn’t worn in months, over the top of a green Squidmas sweater. Four had insisted to have something soft looking beneath the leather and Three was regretting every single fucking decision she’d ever made for the simple fact that this was itchy! Itchy and hot! Real stellar combination there, _Four._

Her turfing shorts and some black leather boots she wasn’t even aware she owned made for a coordinated outfit. She was pretty sure the shoes were a gift from Cuttlefish a few years ago. Honestly, this barely fit her aside from the sunglasses. The Inkopolis sun could be a frustrating thing to deal with if you hated everything about the heat. Sunglasses could help her not deal with everything looking like someone had turned up the saturation and brightness on every object. But she’d NEVER wore these for something like going out for food.

“I look like an asshole.”

“No!! No, you look cool! Eight seems like the kinda girl who’s into dangerous people.” 

Four was astounded by their willpower right now, it was so hard not to agree and tease Three. _So. Hard._

“And his makes me look dangerous, how? I look like I was sucked out some pre-Inkling Human movie.” 

“And Eight will totally dig that!” The thumbs up that was shot her way made her ink boil. Cod, why was this little pest so _frustrating!_ “Besides… We can’t exactly fix you up another outfit, time’s moving steadily on, Three! You don’t wanna be late do you?” 

She did not. She’d been keeping a steady eye on the time while this whole outfit fiasco was going down, that knot in her stomach feeling tighter the more time ticked on. She was really doing this huh? Yet another glance to the mirror made her grimace. At least the shades somewhat covered the scar. 

“Alright. _**Thanks**_ , I guess. But if this doesn’t fucking work and you make me a laugh stock I’ll personally fuckin’ make sure you will be turned into gas station sushi by my own _hands._ ” 

Whatever response Four wanted to spit out, they wouldn’t get chance, Three nudging them out of the way as she stepped out into the hallway and brushed her jacket down. “Alright. I want both of you to fuck off out of my apartment for real this time, Go on, out” She spoke while walking to the door, taking a few tries to unlock it before making a wide gesture for both of them to fuck off out of it and thankfully they took to it.

She wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say or do or… Anything to Eight once she arrived but. This was happening and walking to that establishment was probably one of the scariest experiences of her damn life. 

 

* * *

Damn it, it was hard to traverse in this fucking dress. REALLY hard. Stupid hard. Thank cod she’d managed to convince the idols to let her wear her converses under this, the thought of wearing heels for any extended period of time made the Octoling shudder. But here she was! Pearl and Marina had dropped her off, brushed up a little, Marina had even put lipstick on her! Lipstick! It took a consistent mental effort on her part not to lick at her lips to try and taste it especially since she was waiting outside said restaurant for Three to even arrive.

“... Eight?” 

Oh! There was that familiar voice! Turning on her heel she- Oh. 

“Is… Please tell me that’s you” 

Eight was almost unrecognisable in that get up, though Three would be a liar if she said her heart’s weren’t jumping at the sight. Wow. Wow Holy Shit. 

“Of course it's me! What are you wearing?!” 

“I-Its.. Is it not cool?” 

Claws were slammed down around her wrists as she was tugged forward, the steel toed part of her boots clacking against the sidewalk as she tried to keep her balance. “YES! It is SO cool! I _**WANT**_ THAT LEATHER JACKET!” 

It seemed screaming shit like that in a rather fancy please with fancy people literally crawling from every crevice was not appreciated by said people. The anxiety of having people stare at at her was washed away by how excited Eight looked. Something about that expression just gave her the boost of confidence the usually reclusive agent needed. 

After a soft hush was sent Eight’s way the two headed on inside. Three was surprised with how quickly they were seated! The interior was. A lot. Chandeliers, pure white tables, the soft sounds of people talking and clinking glasses together. It was making her break out into a nervous sweat as she was seated opposite the Octarian. This was _not_ her kind of joint.

“Hey, Three… You good?” 

Oh right, conversation. _Shit._

Placing her arms on the table, she gave a nod. “Y-Yeah, I’m good! Why do you ask!” 

“Your ears are dripping ink.” 

In a motion that could only be described as ‘ _oh fuck’_ , her hand was immediately flung towards her ear, tugging at the sleeve of the leather jacket to try and mop it up. Her face slowly flooded with that awful green color once again. Eight couldn’t stop the tiny snort that left her at the display. 

“You’re such a dumbass, ya know that?” 

“M-Me?! _You_ invited me here! You know I don’t like places like this!” Her tone was hushed but it still had all the signs of the usual huffy agent perfectly. Eight was surprised she could pull it off so well while more or less whispering.

“It was Pearl’s idea actually” She sighed through her nose. “Honestly, I would’ve rather just-”

Whatever she was going to say was immediately cut short by menus being put down in front of the two, the waiter doing so giving the duo an odd look before heading off elsewhere. Fuck. This was not going as planned at all. 

“Speaking of this whole thing.” 

Oh _no._ Three would rather **NOT** , thanks. 

“I’m surprised you even asked! It seems so unlike you being so stupidly cowardly. Did you hit your head and do it by accident? ‘Cause that's all I was imagining. You just, on the kitchen floor with your phone in hand because you tried to reach the cheerios and the box somehow had enough force to render you in state of pure dumbassery.” 

Even though she was wearing shades, that squint was felt all the way across the table. 

“First off, I can reach the cheerios just _fine_ now, thanks. I don’t need your help reaching a box, you twit.” She still needed help. All the time. Why she didn’t just move the box to a lower cabinet was beyond her. “And secondly, I didn’t send that text.” 

It was hard to pick up on, and it wasn’t like Three could exactly see all that well through the shades tinted lenses. They weren’t prescription, after all. So Eight’s slightly disappointed expression went unnoticed. “Oh... That makes a lot more sense! You never use capitals in a text so I was really fuckin’ confused. Ha, I should’ve known there was no way you could write so formally ‘n junk.”

“Anymore glaring holes you wanna point out?” 

“You’d never sign your text’s with your name.”

“Maybe I was _trying_ to be fancy! You don’t know that, I can put effort and make texts look formal if I please!” 

“Three, like I love you and all but, I’ve seen you write out letters before. You once asked me how to spell the word ‘because’ and I don’t even know Inkling that great!” 

“I was tired! Give me a break, Eight!” Man! Was it hard for her dumb lesbian powered brain to not twist those words!! **Fuck!!**

A hand was raised to gently press against her lips to stifle a giggle. Something about winding Three up never got old to the Octarian. Ah, the simple joys of pissing your crush off. Was that what she’d call Three now? A crush? Even though that idea made her hearts soar, the crushing weight of whether Three even liked her or not we’re shooting down those floaty feelings one by one. The text wasn’t sent by her… There was no point in prying into who sent it at this point, she didn’t really care about that. Excited feelings about this whole date were turning to ones of worry and _fuck!_ Eight didn’t like these feelings at all! Cod damn it! This dress was fucking with her emotions! Stupid Pearl and her fucking emotion dresses! 

There would most likely be a very similar kind of panic attack going on across the table if a certain Inkling wasn’t freaking out about something else entirely. Trying to browse the menu in piece her less than shitty hearing picked up something she really _really_ didn’t want to hear right now, unable to do nothing but turn her head at the sound of what she could only recognise as- 

“Bree! Shh! We don’t have enough to buy food from here, they’re gonna spot us if we’re too loud!” 

Overwhelming was the urge to just pick something up from this table and lob it to wherever the sound of that voice was coming from because was the universe fucking joking right now? Taking a risk, Three turned her head and her worst fears were imagined. Wonderful. As if that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, from the simple glance at people’s meals around here, nothing here looked appealing or even smelled that great.

“Hey, Eight.” 

“If you’re gonna say everything here looks drab as fuck, I’m gonna have to agree with you for once. This is literally worse than the stuff they served in the military, and i don’t even remember that. ” 

“The feeling’s mutual.” she mumbled, glancing around again, both Four and Seabreeze were now trying to hide their faces behind menus as if that was going to get past Three and her less than decent eyesight! “Hey, here’s a stupid idea but do you maybe just wanna just go home, get some take out and-” 

“Yes. One hundred percent _yes_ fuckin’ I would kill someone for Chinese or something right now.” 

No attempt was given at stopping the smile on Three’s face as she stood, just the thought of leaving this stuffy place gave such an overwhelming sense of relief.

“Oh, and Three? You should ditch those shades, they don’t suit you.” 

“Uh… Alright?” Taking them off and hooking them into the sweater collar, confused and a little anxious to have her face shown off but it was a simple request she saw no reason to say no too. The soft smile on Eight's face went unnoticed by her.

Quickly side stepping around the table to be at the other cephalopods side, the two began to walk towards the exit. If their hands brushed, neither decided to comment on it. 

Once outside, the two’s shoulders both slumped. Thank. Fucking. Cod. “So where do you wanna stop anyways?” Three questioned, starting to walk beside the taller Octarian who was doing her best not to trip over her dress. 

“Hmmnnn… What was the name of that place run by the lil Jellyfish who always wore like multiple hats stacked ontop of eachother? He had a Gulper Eel working there last time we went, he made the best fuckin’ fried chicken last time we were there and I'm gunna be real with you, I really want fried chicken right now."

Oh. Three was _soooo_ fucking down for fried chicken. “You fucking know I know where that place is! I know all of Inkopolis!” 

“Hmn, doubtful! But okay!”

Giving her a playful nudge, the agent rolled her eyes, hands shoved into her jacket pockets as the two walked in silence for a bit. The whole city was cast in this soft orange hue that bathed all of the buildings windows in a beautiful yet blinding light. Something about the way the skyscrapers in the distance sparkled in such a way reminded her of Eight. In fact, sunrises and sunsets had been starting to make her think of the Octarian more. She always seemed to be so obsessed with them, ever since she arrive something about the sun had always seemed to catch her attention. Always glancing at it whenever she could. Waking her up at fuck knows when to look at it. It was hard not to catch onto little things like that, she supposed. 

Just like how she was catching onto Eight’s shivering. In a swift motion, that dumb leather jacket was unzipped and shrugged off, a call of the taller’s name and Three lent up on her tippy toes to put it around her shoulders, refusing to meet her gaze as she gave a shrug. 

“You were shivering, and you said you wanted it so it's yours now.” 

A rather large grin took over Eight’s features, almost rivalling the sunset it was so bright. “Awh, Three you stupid fuck!” An arm was slung around Three’s shoulder almost immediately, tugging her close to the hip. It almost _almost_ resulted in Three slamming face first into the pavement. Just almost. “I’m never EVER wearing anything else, ever!” 

“I-I doesn’t even fit you, you stupid idiot!” 

“That is quitters talk, Agent Three. It can and it will fit me, I can promise you that.” 

“Don’t rip my fucking leather jacket.” 

“Ah, ah, ah! Mine now.” Eight poked her tongue out at the huffy Agent, a playful smirk on her features. Something about that both enraged and comforted her. “Also, are you wearing a Squidmas sweater?” 

Three’s remaining ear pinged up so fast that it honestly could have made a noise, turning around to glare at her. “Yes. Why? You don’t like Squidmas, Eight? You gonna ruin Squidmas for literally everyone by being a fuckin’ scrooge?” 

“I mean, I’ve never experienced Squidmas before but isn’t that like. December. Next month? You excited, Three?” Her voice had shifted to be more akin of a mother talking to their newborn for prime teasing purposes as Three began to squirm under her arm. Too bad, Ya stinky agent! You were staying there and you were gonna LIKE it! 

As the two walked away from the restaurant, Four and Seabreeze were left to wonder why one earth both of them had left! 

“See, I told you sneaking in to watch them as a bad idea” 

“I just wanted to see if it went okay! Eight really digged my outfit, I dunno why they just up and left?” Four pouted, leaning their chin on the table for maximum poutage. 

“I think they saw us…” 

“Oh, you were here watching someone too?” The pair’s ears both pricked at exactly the same time, turning to see who exactly was talking to them. 

“M-M-MARI-” 

“Shshsh!” The undercover Octarian raised a finger to her lips, trying to keep the overly excited Inkling quiet. “I appreciate your enthusiasm but me and Pearlie here are trying to keep ourselves undiscovered.”

“P-Pearl is here with you?!” Four looked like they were going to scream any second, desperately trying to keep their vocals down and failing miserably. 

“You know it!” Leaning out of the booth, said pygmy waved with a smirk.

All thoughts on what Three and Eight were doing, why they left, all of that shit. None of it mattered now that Pearl and Marina were literally sitting _fucking next to them._ And cod damn was that not just the best thing in the entire fucking universe! 

 

* * *

“Why is fried chicken literally the best thing ever invented.” Spoken more to herself than anything else, Three and Eight we’re both lounging in Three’s humble abode. The shortest legs just barely tossed over Eight’s as they relaxed. 

“Beg to differ, scrambled eggs are where it’s fuckin’ at.” 

Both were exhausted from today, Three finally relaxing in something other than a sweater that made her skin want to go to hell. Just a simple t-shirt and some much comfier shorters, more or less the same for Eight. Tentacles down and almost thankfully lively for being freed from Bun Hell. 

“What the fuck is up with you and eggs?” 

“They’re just good! You can have them in so many ways, and they’re all so tasty... Fuck, now I want eggs.” 

Rolling her eyes, the Inkling moved to sit up. “I’m gonna go get another drink, d’you want anything from the kitchen while I’m up?” 

“Egg.” 

“Fuck off.” 

“Oh wait wait, Three! Hang on! There’s something I want don’t move!” 

This was such a stupid idea, even Eight knew this was a stupid idea but of course that wasn’t going to stop her from doing it. As quickly as one could, she leant forward, pressing her lips to the corner of Three’s own in a swift motion before pulling back. Okay, this was absolutely worth it, Three’s expression was fucking priceless. 

Green had coated the unsuspecting Inkling’s entire face, eyes reduced to mere pinpricks as she gave the other a look that could only be described as a literal typesmash. Her single ear tip already becoming overly heated and starting to drip onto the sofa. 

“What?” 

Silence, but the look Three gave said more than words could in this moment.

“You had sauce on your cheek and I wanted it.” As if she hadn’t even done that, Eight leaned back into her relaxed position. Orange eyes flicking back to the flustered girl, for such a long and rather stressful day for the Octarian, this almost made it worth it. 

Meanwhile, In Three land, everything was currently ablaze. Simply speaking, what the _fuck._


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One dream is left in the dust while a whole knew one is formed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y'all so much for your patience, I'm so sorry this took so long. I wanted the "final" chapter to go out with a bang and be as good as possible and I hope this pulls through as I was worrying over it for quite a bit!! But. Here it is! I will most likely be writing an epilogue but I cannot thank you guys enough for the support you've given me over this silly little project, I've had SO much fun writing it and I've been so exited to share this chapter, so i really hope you enjoy it and thank you so much <3

“You…”

“Me?”

“YOU!” 

“Mhm?” 

It was difficult to place on the ‘whole lot of feelings’ scale where Three was currently sitting, but she was going to give it a solid eight and a half. 

Her hands shifted to press against the sofa cushions, raising herself up onto shaky legs. Drink. Right. She wanted a drink. It felt like taking a soda from the fridge was like climbing some sort of mountain at this rate. Eight had left her limbs feeling like complete jello and the Inkling was unsure if she liked this or not. 

After returning, the two fell into a somewhat uncertain silence. It took a few minutes of stirring the courage cauldron to make something pop but finally Three spoke up. 

“So… Why did you-” 

“I already told you. You had sauce on your cheek and I wanted that, this shit is good!” Orange eyes flickered towards her, being caught oh so perfectly by the low light. 

“And so you…” 

“Licked it off, yeah.” 

That was not a lick! How dare she! Who taught her what a lick was! Three may have been an idiot but dang it that was a kiss! A smooch! Stolen right from the side of her lips! And dang it! She… Liked it?

“Right…” 

Taking a long sip of her soda, which she’d been nursing every so often, Three finally finished the can. Her hands were shaking as she crushed it extremely loudly before tossing it onto the ground. She’d clear it up later, that was the last thing on her mind right now.

“Hey! Litterbug, huh?” An arm was suddenly slung around her shoulders to tug her close, feeling the Octarian’s fist make contact with her head in a nooging motion. “You better pick that up before we go to bed.” 

_We go to bed._ That sentence rung in her mind and clung to her brain like some sort of parasite. They had been sleeping together so often, hadn’t they? Of course, Three was to blame. That splatfest fiasco had put her in far too much of a chummy mood and she. Well. Another incident like the night previous was not happening in her home.  
She wasn’t even sure what sharing bed privileges with Eight was doing or if it was helping but the main thing that mattered was that it hadn’t happened again. Or at least, she hoped it didn’t. So lost in her thoughts, the Inkling was unaware that sneaky arm was still resting on her shoulders.

“Hey Eight.” 

“Mn?” 

“Have you been like, sleeping better?” 

“If you mean ever since I started sleepin’ with you, yeah!” Dang Octarians and their Dang Mindreading! “Your bed’s comfy!” 

“Right.. Just, I was worried that you uh. I… Was concerned you might still be-” Her tongue was twisting in knots inside her beak, nothing was working right now. Every part of her body was going into the worst kind of shut down mode.

“Hey, Three?” And there was the reboot.”Thanks for caring about me.” 

“U-Uh. No problem? I mean you’re my guest and my roommate and-” 

There was a distinct pressure of someone resting their chin atop her head. Every part of her body said to glance up or move her head away but the one maybe, debatably smart part kept her in place. Eight’s tentacle curved and twisted around the slimmer part of Three’s tentacle, close to her ear, gripping it tightly, her gaze was set on the TV but her mouth still ran. 

“No, I mean caring for me without feeling being forced? Is that the right word? Like yeah you can give me food and water and make sure I don’t fall down a manhole like Cuttlefish asked you too and stuff but… I know about the surface now, I can make a living on my own what with the cash Pearl gave me, yet you haven’t asked me to leave or kick me out and you’ve been nothing but kind to me and I wanted to thank you for that.”

Three wanted to scream. Three was going to scream! This was not fucking fair what the hell! Her entire face felt like the inside of a cod damn volcano and she was ready to burst. Eight was a wizard, there was no other explanation for how she could make her feel this way! Not one!

“You’re… You’re welcome.”

Wow, Three wanted a fucking award. Whatever praise the Oysters awards got you nowadays, Three wanted TRIPLE that just for staying calm in this situation. She deserved it! 

The two stayed like that for a while, with Eight’s head resting atop Three’s as the two watched mindless TV until it was impossible for them to keep their eyelids open any longer. The streetlights and Eight’s bioluminescence were the only light sources once the TV had been switched off. Exhaustion was a palpable weight as they made their way towards Three’s room. Would it technically be their room now? Three didn’t want to dwell on it too much. 

The second the two had stepped inside, Eight immediately flopped forward onto the sheets. Her hand, which had been around Three’s waist the entire time, had been whipped away in exchanged for grabbing and shoving the sheets into her face. An odd but content chitter left her throat as the familiar scents and comforting feeling washed over her. 

With Eight currently occupied in sheet city, Three took the opportunity to change. Usually she would’ve fled to the bathroom to switch to her PJ’s; body anxiety and what not, but nope. Here she was changing out in the open like an animal. She must’ve been really tired or something. 

Tired enough to miss the small disaster happening behind her.

“Eight! How’d you fuckin’ do this I had my back turned for two seconds and you’ve gotten tangled in _bedsheets._ You dipshit.” 

“Hey, Hey, Three. Look.” Beginning to wiggle on the bed with a rather smug grin, she poked her tongue out. “I’m like a caterpillar, do you think I’m gonna grow up and be a beautiful butterfly in like three months?” 

“It’d be around three weeks if you were a caterpillar and no.” 

_No, because you’re already beautiful._

_Shut up, Three!_

Snorting mostly to herself, her fingers wrapped around the cloth to tug it out.

“You’re gonna deny a poor, defenceless little Octarian warmth from the cold! You cruel, heartless beast!” 

A silence washed over the room for a moment as Three stood still holding the sheets, before suddenly tossing them upwards and letting them land directly over the other. An Eight shaped lump wiggled beneath. 

Three wanted to tackle her, to throw her off guard, to play fight with her in every way that felt almost instinctual. Have fun with her till the sheets and pillows were messed up and the two were laying side by side and they’d share a soft- 

“Three?... You okay? You’re tearing your shirt up... I’m not that attractive, am I?” A teasing tone laced her voice, Three’s head jerking upwards to look at the other. Sheets moved to the side and a stupid _stupid_ smile on Eight’s face was all she was met with. Glancing down, turns out unfortunately Eight was correct. Her claws had shifted out of their sheaths to start to rip and tug at the fabric. 

“Oh yeah I’m. I’m fine, can we just get to bed?” 

“Yes, oh lady of the house.” 

“I will hit you with this pillow, right here.” 

“The fluffy one?”

“I’m military trained, Eight. I can fuck you up.”

“Oh, I would _love_ to see that.” A loud snort followed as the other’s hand collided with her arm, shoving her across from sitting in the middle. “Oh no!! Ow! Three! You’ve harmed me! How could you do this to me!! Eight!” 

Giving Eight an exasperated look, Three huffed. “Shut your beak and get cozy, I’m too tired for ass kicking activities right now.” 

The familiar beep of her phone being plugged into charge made her ear twitch, the mattress creaking just a little as she moved to settle down, squirming a little to get comfortable before turning her back on the other. 

With her phone slowly dimming to go into standby, the only light left was the slight beams of moonlight peeking from beneath the curtains and Eight herself. 

“ _Eoyah_ , Three.” 

“That means good night, right?” 

“Hey! Check it out! Something in that dumb brain of yours actually remembered something, maybe it _isn’t_ completely hollow!” 

“ _Good Night, Eight._ ” She sounded annoyed, truly she did, but it was a good thing her back was turned as it was hiding a rather stupid smile.

Finally feeling ready to get some rest after a cod awful day, all those potential sheep jumping fences setups were smashed when an arm slithered around her waist. She should be used to this. They woke up most mornings tangled, even if Three’s pillow separation tactic should’ve been flawless it was a common morning thing. But usually Three fell asleep alone on her side of the bed. 

Usually, she’d protest the idea of falling asleep in the arms of someone. Yet, no complaints came to mind. If it was the exhaustion settling in she’d never figure out as it was becoming quite an impossible task to keep awake. She might not want to admit it but maybe this could be something she could get used to.

 

* * *

It was 11pm on a Sunday afternoon and Three was still not used to it. 

The tight yet loose grip, the breath on her neck. Oh, it was far too much for the poor Inkling. Usually Eight was awake before her (Odd that she was always still tangled when Three finally woke up, but now was not the time to dwell) but she seemed to be out cold. Perfect opportunity for her to slip out of the sleeping Octopus's arms, leaving her to snooze in comfort. 

Yet, unfortunately for the poor Octarian, that didn’t seem to be the case; Three hadn’t seemed to pick up on it but Eight was twisting and turning ever so slightly, ears and tentacle tips twitching.

_Left, right, left, left. Come on, how many times have you gone through this now! You should have this pattern down! You’ve been at this for weeks, Eight. This shouldn’t be hard!_

_Eight shuddered as a wave of cold air hit every part of her exposed skin, even though she was hiding behind something it seemed that dang blast could still reach her. Worrisome, but she’d been here before._

_Counting to three in her head all the while shifting around her makeshift hiding place, she took a small moment to take a breath as the entire floor shook. Eight had been here before. Many times, in fact. That faint tune playing in the background; loud yet faded rang in her ears as her shaking hands gripped her Octoshot._

_Whatever she was hiding from seemed to cease its attack for the time being and that was her time to strike. Skidding outwards she fired a few warning shots, praying that a few would hit their target. Great! Tiny spots of blue landed neatly on her perpetrator. Who seemed very frustrated by all of this, dodge rolling to the side and firing out almost impossibly fast and heavy shots. Not great!_

_Good thing she’d inked this place up a minimum amount! Their endless fight had been going on for cod knows how long, but trial and error had taught her that it was never a waste to regain some lost ground. Swimming backwards, she let her distressed attacker take a moment to figure out where she was and- Ah. Here we go again._

_The usual form of the others tentacles shifted to a less stable look, blobs of ink building up and then dispersing in the air seconds later, all while a glittery substance seemed to overtake them. Maybe in a more calmer setting, Eight would’ve thought it looked kind of cool, but right now she was focusing more on getting to any of the nearby equipment to hide behind.  
Stumbling from those damn heels almost cost her as she slammed her back against the clear surface of one of the various weird objects lying around. The Octoling was still unsure as to what this was, there was clearly something inside of it, something green and tube looking. Something she knew she’d seen before. Not like she really had time to focus on it this time around, slamming her injured back straight into it was proving itself to be a very painful outcome. _

_No matter. She was safe. The rather loud, haunting crash of her opponent slamming into the ground on the opposite side made her goosebumps flood her tanned skin. How many times had she gone through this stupid routine, to get this far in one sitting and then to blow it all with some stupid move and send her right back to the start. Well._

_Eight didn’t seem to be in the mood to lose this time._

_Once the other had finished their little splashdown charade, Eight immediately moved away. As much as every part of her wanted to try and get some amount of damage done to the other cephalopod, there was no point if she was going to keep shaking it off as if it was nothing but a mere prod._

_Starting to circle around the admittedly tiny arena was step one of her game plan, trying to make sure there was more blue on the ground than orange. Step two would be to decide on a permanent hiding spot for this little game of chase, just so she could get the other to waste those oh so plentiful specials._

_A smart thinker the Octarian was not, but she was done throwing herself haphazardly in front of the Inkling only to be splatted without a second thought. Maybe adding some actual planning to this might change the outcome._

_It was nerve wracking leading this overpowered relentless enemy in a circle, but she had to wait till those splashdowns were charged and ready. Glancing over her shoulder once or twice to check on the others current state, a wash of discomfort hit the poor Octoling once more. She’d known from past attempts that looking at the Inklings features was a bad idea. She couldn’t quite place a claw on why but the other girl seemed so familiar, scarily familiar. There was no point in dwelling on it now though, there was a fight to survive!_

_Skidding a bomb across the floor seemed to get the other girls attention. Good! And there were those dumbass looking sparkly tentacles!! Okay, time to get this plan into action. It wasn’t the smoothest way to do things, but in her head it looked cool and that was all that mattered. Sliding across to her little set up spot, which happened to be a janky looking barrel, on her waist hurt_ just _a little but it looked super fucking neat so whatever._

__

__

_The Inkling followed suit. It was almost as if she had the nose of a bloodhound that was excellent at detecting tall, tanned, ex-soldier Octarian’s who were trying not to fall into the grips of a panic attack._

_Leading her around the small barrel was hatchlings play, though it was a wonder on how the thing didn’t budge with how strong those splashdowns were. The first two were the usual terrifying feats of the Inkling slamming herself into the ground with so much force it caused Eight’s back wound to burn, you know. Usual bullshit. The third one made the entire arena shake, at least in Eight’s head it did, the glass panes surrounding the outside seemed to quiver and do everything in their power to hold back from cracking. Seeing her own paralyzed, blurry expression in the one directly across from her was her signal to get a move on._

_While her attacker was still taking a moment to recover from such vigorous attempts, Eight took her chance. Moving around the side with her Octoshot in hand, less warning more ‘I want this to end now stop moving’ shots were fired, hitting their target directly. Said target decided to pull the bastard move of dodgerolling backwards. Fucker. Dodgerolling backwards right into a nearby corner. Hah._

_The idea of wasting such an opportunity made her ink boil. Footsteps echoing as she approached quickly, Octoshot held outwards with no sign of slowing fire.The taste of sweet victory was so so close! That was, until those cod awful sparkles enveloped the Inkling’s tentacles once more._

_What? No! This wasn’t right! She’d already pulled that trick before! There had to be a cooldown! This was NOT fair!_

_Before Eight could stumble back, swim away, do anything to avoid the inevitable the other girl struck down on the floor with extreme force. Being shoved back so harshly caused the Octoling to stumble before landing flat on her behind, She barely had a moment to realise she hadn’t be splatted, eyes quickly flickering open to notice the other was charging directly towards her. Heroshot held tight the Inkling pressed those dumb looking agent shoes into the ink covered floor and launched herself off of the ground in a rather show-offy backflip. If Eight wasn’t close to hyperventilating from panic she would’ve found it kind of cool._

_In said stroke of panic her Octoshot was raised upwards, finger pressing down on the trigger to shoot forward. Two quick bursts of ink smacked against the agent’s hi-viz, two shots too much for her to handle it seemed. Her heroshot clattered to the floor in an unceremoniously loud clack and soon came the Inkling to follow, her head landing somewhere close to the tip of the others heels as silence washed over the arena. That heavenly melody that’d been ringing in Eight’s ears for so long now totally absent._

_“A-Agent Thr-_ ee?” 

In a tangle of covers and pillows, Eight shot up, to anyone on the outside it would’ve looked like a worn student had just slept through their alarm. Wincing slightly at the intense light from a nearby window, a groan left her beak. Geez, Three would it kill you to shut the bl- _Where was Three?_

First instinct caused her to glance downwards, only to be met with bedsheets and part of her bare leg being shown. Wait. Wait wait wait. Hold every single metaphorical… _Object_ in the world. Did she do it? After all this time was it finally over? Sun dappling and glazing over her dark skin broke her victory train of thought, not even the sound of birds chirping outside could tear her gaze away from her arm. 

For the first time in a very, very long while the usual tension that rode on her shoulders after waking up was non-existent. 

“Hey, you good? Eight?” 

Oh hey, a recognisable voice! That was music to her ears! Whipping her head up a little faster than anticipated, orange eyes finally met with the Inkling across from the bed. Had Three been here the whole time? Wow that dream had really zoned her out… Whatever, now was not the time to dwell _on_ the dream, it was the time to gloat about overcoming it!!

“THREE!” Scrambling like an excited child on Squidmas morning, Eight tugged herself towards the end of the bed to a very confused looking Three who had backed up at the over the top display.

“Uh... y-” 

“I DID IT. Like. WOAH! Okay so-” Originally on all fours, Eight had taken a much more comfier position in criss cross applesauce on the end of the bed, hands shoved between her legs as she leant forward. “I beat her!” 

“Beat… Who?” 

“You! Like I completely dominated your ass and-”

 

“You _what_ now?” 

“That stupid nightmare! You know the one I told you about!!” 

It took a moment to register exactly what the other was babbling about and Three wished those precious moments of ignorance lasted just a teensy bit longer. _That_ dream. Right. The one where she was trying to allegedly maul Eight’s face off and completely break every non-existent bone in her body. 

“... Yeah.” 

“I finally managed to do it! I’ve never been able to actually get her back but I TOTALLY fucking wrecked her!” With that, the criss cross applesauce was no more as Eight launched herself off of the edge of the bed and onto her heels, wobbling slightly to regain some needed balance before her claws slipped beneath the shorter’s arms.

Poorly planned in hindsight, the Octoling couldn’t care less as she lifted the other off the ground with a playful chirp leaving her beak. Spinning her around four times in a row was all she could handle before the added weight was starting to make her topheavy yet it did nothing to halt the smile on her face. The pair unceremoniously hit the bed a moment later.

Three wanted to yell. She wanted to kick and scream and scold like she always did. She felt winded, out of breath, flustered. None of these were good feelings! With her back now pressed against the sheets, she was ready to start firing off with the usual rebukes guns blazing yet something held her tongue.

That glorious, charming, wonderful laugh. It was stupid, really. A laugh shouldn’t have stopped her from ratting Eight out. It was just a laugh! But the feeling of a pretty girl resting her head on her chest and giggling so breathlessly; as if she hadn’t laughed like this in a good long while, was getting to her far more than she wanted to admit. All of that embarrassed anger melting away and reforming into flustered silence as she stared at the ceiling. 

Time seemed to slip through her fingertips as the pair laid there for a few moments. Three may have seemed calm, co-ordinated but in reality every single part of her body felt like it was forcefully pressed against hot coals. 

“So… What’re you doing anyways?” 

Eight’s words were like cold water, so to speak, Three flinching as her ears pinged upwards.  
Her brain wasn’t totally back in order yet, Eight! Give her a minute!

“Nothing.”

“Can I help?”

“ _No._ ”

A futile attempt was made to get the other off of her via squirming and shoving before she finally managed to push the other to the side and stand. Her hands immediately went to her shirt to brush down some non-existent dust and give her a sharp scowl before turning back to the task at hand. 

Living with Eight had taught Three a lot of things, one of which was that she had literally no fucking patience and wanted to be involved in _EVERYTHING._ No matter how stupidly miniscule or pointless the task was, Eight wanted a hand in it. And Agent ‘I’ve lived on my own for nearly 5 years and done most everything by myself’ Three wasn’t exactly a fan. 

Those annoyingly pretty eyes weren’t gonna distract her from the task at hand! No siree!!

.... 

“Okay, fine! _FINE!_ You can help!” 

If Three could see the expression that lit up the Octoling’s face, her scowl would’ve somehow soured even more than it already was. Whatever, she had stuff to do. And by stuff she meant clearing out her closet. Which was absolutely, one hundred percent on her to do list today. Totally what she was planning to do the next day before going to bed and not a distraction she haphazardly threw herself into doing after a _vague, miniscule,_ _**insignificant**_ panic attack about the day prior. Not at all. 

Haha wow, Look at that old shirt!

“So what we doing?” 

“AH-” 

That interesting shirt had distracted Three so much she hadn’t even noticed that the other had come to stand beside her, scaring the absolute daylights out of her in the process. 

“ _COD_ , Eight! You can’t just sneak up on people like that!” 

“Don’t tempt me! With reactions like that I must just start!” Her arm gently nudged Three’s in a playful fashion, grin ever present. “But really, what are you doing?... Wait- Are you making a nest?” 

Confusion replaced that sour lemon expression the agent always donned. “What?” 

“Y’know, a nest? You’re dragging a bunch of shit out your closet, and I spy some soft looking stuff here!” Kneeling down, the nearest object was immediately plucked up off of the floor to be examined. A pout crossed her face as it was snatched up almost defensively. 

“Absolutely not. I’m cleaning my closet out.” 

“Now.. Three” 

A weird wave of uncertainty rolled over her as Eight stood to her full bullshit height of six foot three inches. Almost frozen in place, Three was stuck staring right up at her, claws leaving their sheaths to press into whatever she’d snatched. A hand was settled on her shoulder a moment later setting off an uneasy shudder down her back.

“You know cleaning out means things are supposed to be _less_ messy right? This place looks worse than it usually does and that's saying something!” 

Fucking Eight! How DARE she get like that to her! What gave her the right?! In a frustrated huff she tugged her shoulder away; loudly sighing in secret relief before spitting out her reply.

“Dumbass, I’m getting everything _out_ first, checking what I wanna keep and what I wanna toss and THEN I’m putting it all back. I’m not trying to make my room a mess, you stupid fuck!” 

“You’re not doing a great job then.” 

If Three was mad before, she was fuming now. An arm had come to make itself quite comfy on the top of her head as Eight viewed the closet with a squint. “Mm… So what are you thinking of keeping?” 

“I-I dunno like… Stupid family junk? Some shirts? I’m trying to figure that out now but you’re getting in my way!” 

With Eight now gingerly shoved to the side, she sunk to her knees, rummaging through the massive pile that never seemed to end. Most of it seemed to be clothes, some things of varying importance kept in shoeboxes like worn down old models of cell phones and chargers. Maybe an old game or too stashed in the corner. As Three ventured deeper into the closet, her hands brushed against a rather dusty box. Grimacing slightly from the disgusting amount caked on, she bit her tongue and held back a shiver of discomfort while tugging it out into the light.

Nothing special. A simple black box with a logo impossible to see due to obvious reasons, a quick swipe of the hand revealed it was, to an outsider, a bunch of random letters. But to Three? Whatever this box was about made her eyes light up. 

Ohhh. Oh. How she’d _forgotten_ about this beauty. With almost delicate motions, she pried the lid aside, placing it down as if it were as fragile as glass. Inside rested a state of the art Luna Blaster, a banned model at that. The one before all of the new specials took over. There was the kind of packaging you’d see in delicate parcels littered around to keep it somewhat safe, but the weapon looked brand new. 

“... OOoh. Hey, what’s that?” 

“You know weapons, don’t you?” She cocked a brow. In any normal means of demonstration, Three wouldn’t have touched her precious first gen Luna… But the temptation to pick it up was getting a bit much. Rough hands gripped the handle as she raised it, the tip catching the natural light from outside.

“ _This_ is a Luna Blaster. _A Mark One Luna Blaster._ It was the first weapon I ever mained and ever… Owned, really. It’s banned in turf now, but this old beauty ain’t goin anywhere! Her names Firework and check it! See! Even the logo isn’t scratched and that’s after years of tu-”

“Not the Luna, _that!_ ” 

Following the pointed claw to something resting inside the closet, Three squinted. Well there was… Definitely _something_ in there. Placing her precious Firework down, she scooted forward on her knees. Ignoring the amount of dust that seemed to kick up, evident by how tiny particles were visible in the strips of sun easing through the blinds, once, she reached outwards. 

Tattered ears shot up in surprise at the texture… Kind of, cold? Maybe? Definitely hard. Something… Metal? Calloused hands wrapped around whatever the fuck was resting in the dark and tugged it out into the light, having to squint away for a second as whatever it was; it was VERY reflective. 

Making sure the thing wouldn’t blind her as the last thing she wanted was to add to her list of bodily functions that absolutely didn’t work right, (Ears and stupid lesbian brain tended to be the top contenders) Three took a glance downwards at what was resting in her palm. Golden… Kinda gross looking, worn even. It wasn’t rusted, just hadn’t aged well. Where had she seen this before? It was like a little ball of takoyaki pierced with a stick. 

“Oooh! What is that!?” 

“I don’t… Oh! Uh…” 

Suspense was getting to Eight as Three ducked back into her closet, rooting around for a few seconds with half muttered chuffs and words to herself before she finally pulled out something else. It was _much_ larger than the little toothpick she’d yanked out earlier, but shone with the exact same golden glow.

“It broke off of this, I think… It was an old trophy for a cooking contest I won with my Ma’... Mn. That kinda sucks, didn’t think a trophy like that would be so… Breakable.” Ear’s twitching with annoyance, she pushed it to the side. No point in mourning a stupid trophy.

“I mean it _is_ in _your_ closet.” 

With the Octarian finally joining her on the floor, Three could finally flash all the glares she wanted without having to look up.

“And what is THAT supposed to mean?” 

“It’s like… More dangerous than a rusty dome in there. I don’t think I could spend more than five minutes without feeling gross and dusty and dried out… Anyways, can I have that?” 

Any retorts in Three’s head were snapped in half by the question. “What? The trophy?”

“No, no! The little shiny thing you pulled out first!” 

“The…?” Reaching around her while still trying to maintain eye contact, Three pulled the pick up, silently asking if this is what she meant.

“Yeah!! Yeah, I want that!... Can I have it?” 

_Cod, why were Octoling’s so weird?_ It wasn’t as if living with one hadn’t caused that particular question to cross her mind plenty of times but still. _Why?_ She guessed living down in dusty old kettles did that to a person. Aaand time not to dwell on that subject! Ever! Thinking about the Valley was forbidden in her brain! Begone, thoughts! 

“I mean, sure, if you want?” Maybe tossing such a sharp object towards someone without really focusing was a bad idea, but when did Three ever have good ones? Thankfully, Eight caught it and nothing was unintentionally stabbed. “Dunno why though, it’s just a weird toothpick.” 

“It’s sparkly!!... I think it’d…” 

Whatever Eight was doing was blocked out by Three returning back to her closet sort out schedule, which of course wasn’t going to be happening for long because- 

“So what do you think?”

Deciding to humour the other girl, Three turned her head, unamused expression turning to one of slight intrigue. Eight had _somehow_ slotted the thing behind her ear and it was staying in place too. Dang Octolings and their weird ways with gravity! On the other hand…

It actually looked cute, very cute! It suited Eight in a kind of odd way. Her tongue was caught in her beak for a few seconds before she could finally utter a response. 

“It… It looks good, actually. Suits you.” 

“See I fuckin’ _told_ you, I knew it’d look good on me! Plus its shiny, who doesn’t want something shiny?”

“I dunno, people who don’t want their eyes seared whenever it catches the sun? Also, hey tonight I need to switch your bandages over again, okay?” 

A whine of displeasure left Eight, whether it was the lack of attention or the activity planned for later on was unclear. 

“Fiinne…” Retreating to the window across from the bed, Eight took a moment to breath and take in the sights. To anyone, it probably wasn’t much. A whole bunch of buildings, the sound of car horns mixed in with maybe the odd creature below conversing with someone else. Nothing out of the norm for living so close to such a popular area and nothing too special either.

Noise was as common as dirt when you lived out in the city, but to Eight? It was something else entirely. She’d been up here for more than a few months or so now. Infact, she’d lost count how long it had exactly been. Maybe two… Three? Who knew, she wasn’t keeping track, that was for sure. But no matter how long she’d be up here for, the thought of getting used to seeing the sun, the hustle and bustle of everything out there… It was a thought completely unprecedented to her. 

Raising a hand, the shiny new accessory was brought down to rest on the windowsill trapped in place by her claws as her tentacle tips twitched lively, it almost looked like they themselves were taking in the sights and smells of the city outside. 

“Hey, Eight. You wanna get something to eat soon?” 

Food? Fuck the view, food time. 

“Uh, duh?” 

“Okay, well, once I’m done sorting this pile out we can get something.”

Awh, what!? The Octarian huffed, turning her back to the window and shooting Three a look she most definitely missed. She’d been tricked! Bamboozled! She thought food would be happening now! 

“Can I still help orrrr?” She began to take a few meek little steps towards the other, as if Three was some kind of dangerous animal. Two hands were always better than one after all! 

“As long as you don’t get in the way then yeah, sure.” 

Moving down to be on her knees, she shuffled almost awkwardly close to the other. Three desperately wanted to say _something_ about personal space but truth be told, she’d been at this for quite a bit and kind of wanted a bite to eat herself so back to focusing it was.

Or. Would have been. As expected, the two fell into their usual back and forth bantering, it would’ve annoyed the Inkling a few months ago but something about telling the other to shut the fuck up and stop making dumb jokes, only to get a less than gentle nudge in response was oddly homely. The nudge back in response seemed to start a somewhat gentle pushing war between the two, Three telling her to knock it off and get back to _actually_ helping, but the telltale smile resting on her face said otherwise.

“I said not to- hmnf- Get in the way, Eight!” Another shove.

“You shoved me back! This is your fault! You- hey!- You started this.” 

“UH, No? _YOU_ were the one who kicked all of this- Ow! Hey!” 

Clawed hands came down on her shoulders, half pinning her to the dusty carpet below. “Eight, you stupid fuck, let go of me!” 

“Finders keepers, losers weepers.” 

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” 

“Does too! Cause I-... Do you hear that?” 

Torn away from the wriggling Inkling beneath her, Eight’s ears shot up before her head could even turn to what she could only identify as… Wings? Finally turning to the source, the grip on Three was lost instantaneously as she shot up. 

“ **HEY!** ” 

It seemed leaving a shiny object out in view of the world next to an open window was a _bad_ idea. A quick mental note was made _never_ to do that again as she drove her heel into the carpet, trying to get to the window before the bird took off and… Too late. 

But not too late for this Octarian! One leg was out of the window before Three could even speak and that was one leg too many for her. Scrambling across the floor, she quickly wrapped her arms around the others waist, cheek smushed against her back as she tried to pull the persistent girl away from the window.

“THAT CROW TOOK MY SHINY STICK!” 

“We!- ngh- HAVE A DOOR! STOP IT!” 

Surprisingly, despite the height difference, Three managed to actually lift her off of the ground for a few measly seconds before stumbling backwards and hitting the ground moments later. Disgruntled, angry frustrated noises left Eight’s beak as she moved to sit up. In a slight panic, Three followed. Sure her head hurt from just slamming against the ground but the fear that Eight might start climbing out of the window again was a bigger concern than a potential concussion as her arms laced around her back once more.

“That-... That fucking crow took my shiny stick!” 

“I-Its just a broken piece of a trophy, Eight! It’s nothing important! _Please_ for the love of cod don’t climb out the window!” 

“It was important to _me_ , Three!” 

The Inkling fell silent for a second. Normally, she’d question why something Eight had just received was so important to her or if it really mattered that much… She could buy Eight something just as shiny in seconds. But today didn’t really feel like a normal day. Arms pulling away from her waist, Three pulled herself up. 

“C’mon, lets go, before that crow gets out of- AH!” 

Three didn’t even have a second to catch her breath before Eight was dragging her towards the front door of the apartment, not even getting a second to lock it as it was slammed shut behind them a moment later. How was this girl so fast?! Deja vu washed over her as she stumbled to keep up with the other who was more or less barrelling down the stairs with no issue. Switching to swimming form seemed much easier, she didn’t want to accidentally trip the other up and slow her down. 

Surprisingly, Eight seemed prepared for this, the hand snaked around her wrist tightening its grip on Three’s tentacles instead and yanking her close to her chest. Startling a few people milling about outside the building, Eight finally came to a stand still, allowing Three to hop out of her arms and back into her more versatile form. 

“Okay, w-where to next?” 

No response was given as Eight squinted at the sky, fully focused on finding that pesky bird it seemed. In a weird way, it reminded Three of a slug set on chasing a butterfly. Neither cared of the glancing looks they got. Eight far too focused on finding that bird and Three deep in thought. 

Well, nothing _too_ deep compared to other thoughts that conjured up in that dumb brain of hers, but it was still leaving Three partly unaware of the looks the two got; they were still in their pyjamas after all. 

A few more seconds and Eight was on the move again, her hand wrapped around Three’s wrist as her gaze rested on the sky, navigating the streets as if she’d lived here her entire life. If she wasn’t so focused on not walking into passersby, Three would be very impressed at how fluid the other was at doing this! 

The steady but fast walk had turned into an unpleasant jog, the silhouette of the thief was kept in Eight’s sights the entire time as it weaved in and out between buildings, it was _also_ impressive she’d managed to find the crow in the first place! What kind of sea creature could track something like that?

One very determined Octoling, that was what. 

Finally changing its course, the feathered pickpocket dove lower, just as the two reached the square. Eight’s grip on Three’s wrist tightened as she charged after it. To her dumb, currently full feral mode brain, perhaps if it dove low enough she could jump up and yank it down. Never to hurt it, of course! Her days of eating birds for food and gift related purposes were over… Sort of. 

But of course, there was nary a chance, for as Eight drew closer the bird took a complete nose dive down and a harsh turn to the right into a nearby alleyway. There was nothing she could do as the Octoling skidded to a halt right outside a dark and rather foreboding looking structure. The crow, of course, showed sign of fear as it disappeared into the darkness, the faded flap of its wings only frustrated the girl even more. 

“Eight…”  
Thank _Cod_ for Three’s voice dragging her back to the surface, she felt like she was gonna break something! Like the wall! Or a nearby bike abandoned on the floor! 

“What?” 

“... I want you to get your revenge ‘n everything, I get it. I feel the same way when you steal stars from me when we play mario party but... We…” 

Despite neither had _really_ been to this specific place in the plaza before, the place that lay in the dark below was nothing new. The soft howl of the wind blowing up from the tunnel was enough to give Three goosebumps. 

As much as the Inkling had spent a few days here and there at the square (infact, it’d become more of a common occurrence to hang around ever since Eight had forcefully squirmed her way into her life) she’d never paid too much mind to the odd looking building. It always had a metal grating bar over the front. Boxes were always stacked up around from nearby businesses who hadn’t found the time to dispose of them properly, and more often than not she’d see teens milling around with drinks or their phones. 

But after such a wonderful, lovely, _headache inducing_ time down in the metro, it became quite a shock to learn that an entrance to such a dangerous place was out in the open like this! Boards now haphazardly covered it up, as well as warning tape. Done by the agency, of course. And by agency, it was just Eight and Three. As much as she was still supposedly ‘taking time off’ after learning the unfortunate truth about this rickety looking mess, she wanted to make sure no one else went down there for the time being.

After all, this lead to _that_ specific station platform, it wasn’t as if it led to any of the normal civilian station platforms, no it had to lead to the one with the insane phone with the big ol’ cephaloperson sized blender! Great! Cool fuckin’ place to just have out in the open with a measly little gate blocking the entrance! Thanks Inkopolis Division of Safety! Doing a bang up fucking job there! 

“We boarded this place up for a reason and it- it’s, we don’t know what it's like down there after all the… _Events._ And I don’t want you, us, _us._ To get stressed or lost down there and… Hey! Eight!” 

Didn’t even let her finish her warning speech and now she was squirming past the boards too!? Eight was truly a criminal that dealt blows to the real world and now Three’s pride. Having no real choice, Three squid formed in after her, no point in trying to squirm past those boards. Not with an Inkling of her roundness anyways. 

“Eight, it's just a pick. It’s literally a broken part of a trophy! What’s so special about it!” 

Excited chattering and other familiar noises faded out as the two walked deeper inside, the usual brightness of daytime being swapped out for the stuffy darkness of the Metro entrance.

“It’s my pick! I earned that!... I dunno, Three I just. Like it!” The frustration in her voice was evident, the normally invisible bioluminescent freckles dotting the surrounding walls and ceilings with a soft pink glow.

“Is a pick really worth going all the way down here?” 

_This place could use better lighting._ It was so dark, infact, that Three’s own biolum spots on the ends of her thick tentacles were beginning to give off a pathetic glow. Compared to Eight’s, it was like comparing a phone on 5% battery to the cod damn sun. 

“I can’t be afraid of a fucking train station forever, Three. It’s just a memory. A stupid shitty memory. I _want_ my shiny stick.” 

With that, Three shut her beak. Now only trailing behind the other in stifling silence. 

Which absolutely didn’t suit Eight’s style. Not one bit. Stopping so suddenly, Three nearly bashed into her. 

“Eight?” 

“Gimme your hand a sec, it’s dark in here, last thing I want is for you to go missin’ in the metro.” 

Three did so without question. The snug feeling of Eight’s fingers slotted between her own offered an odd sense of comfort as the two started to walk again What the Inkling didn’t realise was that a little handholding was getting to her a bit more than she’d liked to admit, the dull lighter spots on the ends of her tentacles starting to give off a faint green glow. 

“I didn’t know you had bioluminescent stuff?”

“Mn? Oh it-... Yeah. It’s… It’s usually pretty dull, not really much of an Inkling thing really. At least, not for Humboldts.” 

Passing by the various broken down structures, Three subconsciously stepped closer to Eight as they walked past assorted tipped over pieces of equipment. So much hospital equipment… The Inkling swallowed thickly, a queasy feeling washing over at the thought of what on earth kind of awful things they could be doing down here. There was still liquid in those IV bags! She didn't like that!!

“It doesn’t even look like they’ve sent anyone down here to clean stuff up.” 

Eight was right… This place looked like it was in an even worse state than before.

“Would you wanna clean this place up?” 

“Nope! But someone’s gotta do it!” 

The way the Octarian’s voice echoed and bounced off of the walls gave the shorter girl the jitters for reasons she couldn't even begin to comprehend. Though finally, after what felt like an unnecessarily long walk, the two made it out to the central station.

It took a moment for Eight to haul herself up onto the station platform and then tug Three up by her hands but here they were!! Now where was their thief? The occasional flicker of a nearby lightbulb on its lasts legs did nothing to help their situation as Eight squinted. Where?! Where the fuck was that bastard? It was still so stupidly dark, so dark that she didn’t even notice the- _Oh._

They _really_ hadn’t cleaned up anything down here, huh? 

There was nothing Eight could do but stare at the beast in the middle of the station platform, large pieces of broken glass lay untouched, the light from the broken window above highlighting them in a sickeningly picturesque way. Everything else, unfortunately, had been left perfectly untouched. Infact, from here she could see the base of the blender had started to gather a little dust from sitting out here for so long. 

Departing from Three, she began to approach the wreck of machinery. The closer she drew the more it felt like there was weights upon weights being added to her shoulders… If Three had said anything in those moments, she wouldn’t have heard as she took residence right beside the blender’s base. A few sweet seconds of silence washed over the place before Eight delivered a hearty kick to side of it, the loud thud springing off the walls and already starting to fade out.

Ha, take _that_ you dumbass smoothie maker. 

“Eight! Please be careful! you’re still fuckin’ i-in your PJ’s and there’s broken glass everywhere a-...” 

Whatever Three was going to say, it had melted out of her head and onto a puddle on the floor from the look Eight was giving her. It kind of reminded her of a feral animal, or a zombie seeing something it considered a tasty snack. Ears perked all the way up, hands held downwards in front of her stomach, tentacle tips raised and alert. And to top it all off, an almost ravenous glint in her eyes. 

Wow. There were many things she didn’t like about that. 

“Don’t. Move.” 

Three felt her back stiffen up as Eight began to approach, that same hungry glint in her eyes ever persistent the closer she stepped. It honestly reminded Three of whenever she had food and Eight wanted some, but ten times more terrifying and intense. 

A loud sigh of relief left her as Eight crept past, thank _Cod_ she was focusing on something else. Shoving the stupid idea that the Blender had caused her to react so feral away, she turned her head to see exactly what had caused her to be so attentive. 

_OOOoooh._

Stuck perfectly behind them was a couple of lockers shoved against the wall, despite the deterioration of this place, they actually looked pretty fine. All aside from one. The lower middle locker in a row of five had this odd almost enticing gleam to it, various twigs and other weird looking materials were scattered all over the floor below it. Aside from the distant sound of the metro train chugging elsewhere, the station was coated in silence. 

Tiptoeing as close as she needed to get, Eight came to a halt, returning to her full size instead of being hunched over as if that was helping her stealthing mission in anyway. 

“Awh… Three, they have babies… Thief Momma.” 

Pushing part of her bangs away from her eyes, Three began to approach with vague caution. Just in case. Finally beside her, she squinted, being able to make the outline of something messy looking? Finally coming into focus after giving whatever was inside that locker a harsh one sided staring contest, her ears perked. Oh, a nest! 

“Ah… Well, you know crows, they always want shiny things. I’m sure her babies will love that pick… You wanna get going now? Because I still haven’t had breakfast and I-” 

“Hahaha. Hell no, I’m getting my shiny stick.” 

“What?!” 

The amount of disbelief on the others face wasn’t exactly too high, but still noticeable! It’s Eight, she should’ve expected something along the lines of ‘ _I want a broken piece of trophy and I’m going to fight a crow to get it_ ’ from her.

“Three, you distract it, okay? I’m gonna snatch it up without disturbing the little ones.”

As nonchalantly, to not draw attention to themselves, as she could Three threw her arms to the side. Her voice, which had been a soft whisper had very quickly turned into a harsh, yelling whisper. 

“Distract _what?_ The crow?! How do you expect me to distract a fucking bird?!” 

“They like shiny things right?” Already, Eight was taking steps closer. “You!! You’re shiny! You radiate… Uh… Uhhh. Green?” 

“... _Green._ ” 

“Yeah, like, y’know. You’re green. Besides, these hands were made for snatchin’!” 

As if to demonstrate, as she took another step closer, the Octarian wiggled her clawed finger tips with a grin. “If they weren’t, I’d never be able to snatch fries from you without you knowing!” 

“You _**what?!**_ ” 

The sudden change in tone from harsh whisper to actual raised voice seemed to peak the crows attention, its head whipping up to see what all the commotion was about. 

“Like that! That’s perfect!” 

Three let a growl leave her throat, frustration building up inside her chest. Fucking _Eight._ Doin’ all this stupid shit for a TOOTHPICK. Fuck! This was so-

“Ow, hey! _OW!!_ WHAT THE FUCK! OW!” 

Unaware to the huffy agent, the feathered thief in question seemed to view the aggressive Inkling as quite the threat, deserting her nest for now to start pulling and pecking at the her tentacles, ears. Whatever it could get its pesky beak onto.

“GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF!” In an attempt to free herself off the birds rampage, Three more or less stumbled down towards the other end of the station, swatting aggressively but missing every time. “ **AAAAH!** ” 

Eight, on the other hand, wasn’t wasting any chance! Approaching the cluttered nest that was awkwardly fit inside the locker, she gave a soft smile to the chirping hatchlings that lay beneath.

“Awh… You’re so helpless, I’m sorry little ones, but this”, she spoke softly, as a mother would to a child, as she plucked up the toothpick from the nest, “is mine.” 

With the pick now in hand, she quickly slotted it above her ear, admiring herself for a moment in a nearby puddle before glancing over at the mess of a display before her.

It was kind of incredible how Three was struggling so much with a single bird. 

Jumping back down onto the track below, and wincing when it gave an uncomfortable creak beneath her weight, she pushed herself up onto her tiptoes to see the ongoing battle.

“THREE! THIS WAY! TURN SQUID, I’LL CATCH YOU!” 

Thankfully her loud plan had work, Three’s attention had been grabbed and the shorter of the two was now running full speed at her, turning squid the moment she jumped off of the platform. A barely audible sigh of relief left her as she landed safely in the arms of the Octarian. Once Eight had a secure grip on the other, that was her signal to leave, bolting down the other end of the track to leave the station to its eerie ways once again. It took a moment to scramble back the way they’d came, worming their way through the wooden planks in a hurry as if the crow as going to give chase. The two flopped to the pavement a second later, attracting a minor bit of attention from near the tower but nothing to draw a crowd.

“Ugh…” Three took a moment before pushing herself up into a sitting position, brushing one of her tentacles out of her face. “Did you get it?” 

“‘Course!” If Three was looking over to her and not making sure there weren’t any more sizeable digs taken out of her tentacles, she would’ve seen the other holding the pick up against the light in triumph. The utter lack of attention towards her victorious pose made the Octarian pout a little. 

Yet, without having to get a glance for herself, that chipper, familiar voice spread a warm fuzzy and frustratingly heated feeling all throughout her. It was like taking a sip of an energy drink for the first time ever. 

“Good.” Was all she could manage, still a little shaky post-bird attack. 

“Three?”

“Mn…”

“ _Thank_ you!! I’m so glad I got the pick back!” 

Before the Inkling could even get her bearings, two arms were wrapped around her waist tightly, tugging her across the concrete into a snug hug. 

“Y-You’re welcome?” 

“You were _perfect_ bait too! I can’t believe how smooth that went!” 

The slight nips in her already damaged ear and tentacles said otherwise. 

“ _Thanks._ ” 

Worming her way out of the others grip, Three stood to brush some of the debris off of her pajamas. She still couldn’t believe how she ran out and all the way here looking like this. Cod. 

“Can we get some breakfast now?” 

The disgruntled Inkling turned on her heel to face the other still seated on the floor, holding out a calloused hand out to her. “Duh? I’m fuckin’ starving.” 

“Oh same! I think a champion like me deserves something big this time, can we go somewhere?” The question rung in Three’s ears as Eight was tugged up onto her feet. 

“Haha.” Turning around to face the plaza with a chuckle, Three stretched. “No, we have food at home.” 

 

* * *

As time ticked on, the day became the usual routine the two knew; lounging about the apartment, maybe watching a movie if the two could be bothered. The only difference in plans had been the agreement to go turfing later into the evening. _Only_ if Eight let Three change her bandages. It’d been a couple of days since the last time they were swapped and as nice as it felt to have them all fresh and new, the octoling still couldn’t wrap her head around why Three was so on top of that. 

“Hey, Eight?” 

The call of her name made her ears perk,looking up from her mechanical mess. She certainly didn’t expect to see Three leaning against the doorframe in her turfing gear. Thinking that it was finally time for turf made her leap up in excitement, only to stumble to a stop when Three’s motioned for her to go to the bedroom. Right. Bandages. 

“C’mon, the quicker we do this the quicker we’ll be able to get turfing.” 

Turning around to avoid seeing the whiney half-tantrum the other would throw, Three nudged her bedroom door open with her shoulder and took a step inside. The telltale stomps down the hall made her ears twitch in amusement as she moved to take a seat on the bed. This wasn’t the first time the two had done this and certainly wouldn’t be the last, Three couldn’t hide that smirk on her lips when the other finally pushed her way in. 

“Fiiine, fine.” 

After taking a seat on the bed, not mentioning the several mumbled complaints that followed, Eight’s hands dipped down to grab the fabric of her shirt. After all this time, Three still had to glance away during this part, even if Eight wasn’t facing her. She’d swear on her soul it was JUST out of respect for the other girl, nothing more! 

There was a certain carefulness to the Agent’s touch that the Octarian never really got to witness anywhere else. As troublesome and annoying as it was to sit still and let Three do her thing, the soft and gentle brushes to her bare skin had become somewhat of a silent comfort in a weird way.

A sigh left her lips as her shoulders drooped, feeling the other slip a finger beneath the fabric and unsheath a claw to quickly cut through. Much easier than using scissors, she supposed. 

Just the odd shift of her arms here and there and her bare back was exposed to the world once again. 

Eight still hadn’t seen the mess that it was, Three had offered to take a photo and show her if she ever _really_ wanted too but the offer had been shot down each time. She wasn’t interested in seeing what her mistakes had lead up to, the odd pains from sleeping in a weird position or just sitting in a way her body wasn’t all too fond of made her feel frustrated enough. 

Those kind of thoughts aside, this usually went quicker. What was going on back there? A rough hand brushing against her shoulder blades made Eight flinch, her breath hitching ever so slightly. Feeling said hand graze across her skin in such a way caused her ears to droop ever so slightly as it drifted from the left to the right softly. For once, she decided to keep her mouth shut.

Three, on the other hand, wasn’t even aware of her motions. Her mind was whurring once again, ignoring the fact that she was supposed to be wrapping new bandages around Eight right about now, and instead admiring in the others skin in a way she wouldn’t usually be able too. Little spots, almost akin to freckles, were everywhere. Clustered in big patches on her shoulders and barely visible unless you were really looking. Three knew what those were. Biolum spots. She’d seen them light up in low light before, though they could easily be mistaken as freckles from first glance.

Mismatched eyes trailed down to the massive wound the others back possessed. It was healing nicely, sure, but it still didn’t look all that pretty. Teal interrupted the flow of dark skin in a rather rude way, in the Inkling’s opinion, spiraling up and stopping short just of her upper shoulders. Other lines of teal curved around the others girls waist, staring at her from the front it wouldn’t be too noticeable but from the side it’d be impossible not to see. Closer to the actual wound the teal began to turn to a more darker tone, which was healing over nicely, but Three wasn’t sure if that colouration would ever rid the others skin. 

Just the very idea made her bite down on her lip, from anger or something else she wasn’t sure. Subconsciously, the Inkling leant forward just a little, her hands shifting lower and lower, the part of her brain that was still managing to work through all of her currently inept thoughts making sure to avoid the actual healing part of the wound. Just a little more and her nose would be brushing against the others lower neck… 

“Someone's touchy today, huh?” 

Three’s hand jerked away a second later, eyes turning to mere pinpricks at the sudden intrusion in her little gay moment. 

“N-No I-I wasn’t. I wasn’t trying to uh- You.” She swallowed thickly, a shaking hand snatching the rolled up bandages and beginning to coil them softly around the others waist. Eight instinctively lifting her arms a little once Three started.

“Me?” The teasing edge to her voice only made Three’s hand shake more.

“Yeah. You. Sorry. I was just… Looking. I guess.” 

“Looking? At what? The gross wound on my back.” 

“More… Getting mad at it for taking up your entire back. Fuckers. I’ll destroy everyone in the metro. _Fuck._ ” 

More half mumbled to herself, Eight still let a chuckle pass her lips. 

“Right after you get past that bird, right?” 

“Fuck that bird. Fuck you.” 

Glad that Eight was facing away from her, Three couldn’t stop that usually rare smile prying on her lips once more. It was becoming less and less sparse by the daily with Eight around. 

“I dunno! I thought you did great! So brave, so strong… Getting pecked to death in an abandoned subway- Ow!” 

Ever so slightly, Three tugged a little harsher than usual when tying up the ends, a way to give her a nudge without actually touching her… Through the concern that she’d _actually_ tied them too tight was beginning to wash over her. 

“That too tight?” 

The snort that followed shortly from the other released some of the anxiety gripping Three’s chest. 

“Nah, they’re perfect! Don’t want em too loose, y’know?” 

Snatching her shirt and wriggling into it as quickly as one could, the Octarian jumped to her feet. 

“Don’t want them too _tight_ either…” 

Three held her tongue for a moment, looking at the girl in front of her. Excitement was burning brightly in her sharp orange eyes, her tentacle tips twisting and curling over each other…And her shirt on backwards. That was her Eight, alright. 

Snatching their weapons lazily resting on the sofa cushions, the two headed out without a second thought, the evening light coating the apartment hallway walls in a soft golden glow. Three knew not to keep the other waiting when turf had been promised after all. 

The walk there was fairly uneventful, Eight going on about one thing or another as she usually did. A movie, a new video game, whatever came to mind really. Three was never really talkative unless she felt like she could add something to the conversation, or if something Eight said poked at her nerves (more often than not, it was on purpose) 

As they approached the tower, a nearby conversation caused both of their ears to perk up, not exactly stopping in their walk to get inside but both slowing their speed to eavesdrop. 

“ _Please._ C’mon. There must be a way to change my name by now! It’s been years since I’ve been able too, can’t you just. White it out on my turfing license and I can write something over it?” Desperation was evident in the strangers voice, an Inkling with blue tentacles was seemingly trying to bargain with one of the various creatures who stood outside the tower to help newcomers, though this Inkling did _not_ look like a newcomer. 

“I’m sorry sir but we don’t really hold the power to do that…” The worker seemed to wince at not being able to do much of anything, their tentacles nearly brushing the pavement with how long they were, clipboard grasped firmly in hand. “S-Surely it can’t be that bad!” 

Stranger #1 with the blue tentacles lowered his head in defeat, ears quickly following suite as a sad whimper left him. “N-No it's okay, I’ll just have to accept being Twisprinkle33 for longer than I thought…” 

An _attempt_ was made to stop a laugh passing through her lips as Three’s hand snaked around Eight’s wrist, tugging her away before she could draw attention, more or less yanking her into the tower as the automatic doors slid shut behind them. 

With the two now surrounded in mostly darkness, par the neon lighting of the tower and Eight’s biolum, the Octarian’s lip could wobble upwards in a contained smile much more openly now. 

An odd snrk-ing sound followed later. “H-Holy shit.” 

Three quirked a brow, nothing holding the soft smile on their own lips as they released Eight’s wrist and folded their arms. “You laughed out there you could’ve made a real scene!” 

“That _name_ , Three! Hoooly shit.” 

“Yes, yes I know-” 

“I mean, could you _imagine_ having that kind of name in turf! Besides, don't they know they can just change it online?” 

Although this tower was supposedly new, the door still squeaky as Three pushed it to, allowing Eight to walk through before she followed suite.

“Coming from someone named _Roachin8r_ …” 

Walking behind Eight and all, Three wasn’t really paying attention to where she was going, and she certainly didn’t expect Eight to stop. Bumping into her with a soft oof caused Three to immediately glanced up, clearly confused. “What?” 

“Says you, _Firework._ ” 

A minor spark of tension filled the room causing others to glance over from the sudden energy near the door of the lobby as it clicked shut. To anyone else in the room, it would appear as if these two were some kind of turfing team leaders with a long history. In reality, they were just morons. 

As another person joining the lobby awkwardly stepped around the two still glaring at each other in front of the entrance door, Three snorted, quirking a brow.

“What, you got an issue with the name Firework?” A slight sneer was added to the Inkling’s, who totally wasn’t trying to make herself appear taller by standing on her tiptoes, voice. “Cause If so I think I’ve got one Octarian I’m gonna have my eyes on in turf.” 

Eight’s expression shifted to one of amusement, raising a clawed finger to press against the others nose gently. “Oh, _Please_ , Three. Try as you might, we’ve played turf so many times and I have yet to see you break my shield, let alone get to me with your piddly little blaster.” 

“It’s a good thing we’re in turf, so I can show you just how easy it is to kick your ass.” In response, Three pressed a finger against the others chest, smirking up at her.

And, ah! _Perfect!_ There was the last player! 

Removing her precious Luna Blaster from its safety hook on her jacket, the Inkling spun it around her fingers and nearly dropped it in the process as the group teleported away. 

Shaking the excess spawn ink off as she popped up, Three took a moment to get her bearings. Right. Walleye. She didn’t even check the stages this time around… Odd. Must’ve been the vague excitement she held for playing with the Octoling again.

“Alright, Eight. Prepare yourself.” That, of course, was meant to be to herself. Eight was on the other team! She couldn’t hear her all across the warehouse, silly!

“Oh, I’m prepared alright. You gonna cover turf this time around or go off like a homicidal maniac?”

There wasn’t a term for the noise of surprise that left Three as she jerked to the left, glancing up at the taller girl standing _right_ next to her on the spawn pad. Whatever the sound was, it was embarrassing as she could feel her face being tinted a soft green as Eight snorted.

After the very much needed few seconds to regain herself, the Inkling huffed. “ _Of course._ I always cover turf! I’m just disappointed I won’t be fucking you over till next sunday!”  
Deciding not to get into a full blown playful argument on spawn (that could wait till later), Eight stretched while waiting for the countdown, tentabrella, quite a nice new upgrade in her opinion, held above her head as she glanced down with a raised brow. Three seemed to be in a good mood today, she could tell by the overly cocky mood plastered all over her and that confident smirk reflected right back at her.

_Cute._

Right. She couldn’t ignore the indigo blush coating her cheeks, (sidenote, changing ink colours and then blushing so suddenly felt _odd._ at least to her) Lately it had become more and more apparent to Eight about how unfairly adorable Three was. It’d be, infact, kinda hard to take her mind off of it in fact. That date yesterday hadn’t exactly helped anything she’d been unintentionally swallowing down. Now wasn’t the time to focus on that anyways, the starting whistle had been blown!

Charging off from spawn and letting their two other team members charge forward towards mid, the two glanced towards each other in silence before going down both the left and right alleyways respectively. It’d become a natural flow to work together to cover turf in such a way that no words were needed as Eight took right. Eventually popping out on the right corner of the map and slapping a beacon down as quickly as she could. 

Turfing may be slow with this weapon, but she adored the slow build up and the feeling of getting someone with a quick and simple direct, as much as she adored her old Splatbrella, sometimes you just have to shake it up a little! Though before she knew it, something quicker than she expected was in front of her. No time to pull the tent like shield open as she was splatted into oblivion with a huff.

Spawning rather quickly, she took a moment to glance down at her map, ears twitching as the respawn pad chugged and whurred to life, Three popping up beside her. 

“Hey, what gotcha?” She asked, not really expecting a response as she dove into the ink to head towards middle, surprised when Three joined her, the conversation resuming as the two leapt out of the ink.

“Dualies, What else.” 

With a loud ‘ _plop_ ’ the two landed into the ink of the lower level and continued till mid, jumping out to start firing once they were on the main ground floor of the arena. Eight opening her brella to send it flying forward as she glanced over to her teammate. 

“Oh, same actually! You think they’re working together?”

“Might be.” Three mumbled under her breath as she continued up with Eight behind her brella shield, shaking up a fizzy bomb as quickly as she could and tossing it over. 

“Also did you actually _cover_ left side?”  
Three scoffed as she shot a blast towards the two towers in the middle, climbing up one to get a good glance around. “Of course I did!” 

Pulling out the map for a quick glance, she was pleasantly surprised. “Look at you, Three! Actually covering stuff!! I’m proud you, _Firework~_ ” She cooed affectionately, ignoring the insulted snort from the one still up on the tower. Though for some odd reason, that name jolted something in her less than stellar memory.

“Oh!! Three!!” 

The sudden change in volume caused the other to _nearly_ stumble off of the middle tower, but luckily for her she managed to keep her footing. “What? WHAT?!” 

“That reminds me!! I got something I need to talk to you about, c’mon!” Wanting to plant another Beakon down on left side, she gestured for Three to follow her, firing her shield over that way so the two had a nice path to follow. 

Grumbling to herself, Three threw one more unshaken fizzy bomb towards the other teams side before jumping down and swimming after her, the two making a pitstop for Eight to slap her sub down. “Pearl messaged me earlier today, she realised it's been a good couple of months till I got to the surface and she wanted to celebrate ‘n throw a little thing for me!”

She spoke in a hushed voice, peering around the corner of the screen to check they weren’t about to be flanked before nodding at Three to follow once more, something the Inkling wasn’t all too happy about but followed suit anyways as the two headed back towards mid.

“And _why_ couldn’t you have waited to tell me this after we’re done? This is a battlezone you fuckwit.” 

“Just cause its important!! I want you there!! And-” Just as the two reached mid on the enemies side this time around, Eight’s ears perked.

Beakon’s were interesting subs, that was for sure, and getting used to them took a whole lot of time due to the headache inducing noises the Beakon planter would get from each one placed around the map. “Dualies, Right side.” 

Before Three could even react, Eight held her brella upwards like how one would usually hold an umbrella, opening the large shield upwards before slamming it downwards in front of the Inkling, blocking the sudden intrusion of splat dualies dodgerolling towards them. “I want you to be there and Pearl mentioned it could be in quite a few days and I didn’t wanna forget!” 

Any and all responses Three had were knocked out of the park as that large shield was placed in front of her, not wasting a moment as she quickly popped off two shots above the canopy, hearing them both connect with the little intruder as they were splatted a moment later.  
“Hey, nice! You got ‘em!” She couldn’t resist flashing a tiny thumbs up to the shorter girl, who offered an anxious smile back.

“T-Thanks, but how’d you know they were coming?” 

“Beakon’s, duh!” 

Truth be told the grumpy agent knew nothing about that sub, she never really found any sort of use for them. Anytime she’d tried them out in the past had left her with a pounding headache, which wasn’t good for anyone playing any kind of action based sport. 

“So, are you gonna come?” Eight’s voice tugged her out of her beakon based thoughts. 

“Uh. I’ll. I’ll see.” Still a little taken aback by the impromptu dualies attack, she couldn’t really form a coherent response to what Eight was asking, but the answer was probably yes. 

Eight didn’t take too much offense to the rather nonchalant answer, after all, Three was probably focusing. 

The rest of the match went pretty smoothly for both girls, as did the next ten or so. It was hard to want to stop but after the day the two had had it was getting a little too tiresome to run around and keep all that consistent energy needed for turf going, the thirteenth match was when they finally packed up their stuff and headed home.

As they went through their usual evening routine - food and a little gaming or movie watching, whatever striked their fancy - Eight neglected to bring up the question again. She had a few more days before the actual event after all. She could always ask tomorrow. 

Although, she couldn’t quite place why it was eating at her to repeat her question.

There wasn’t much else to their bedtime routine as the two settled down later that evening. Three turned her head away at the sight of Eight pushing her nose and face into a nearby pillow and snuggling it tight. Never before had she wanted to be a pillow so bad.

Though unfortunately, unlike their usual nights and unknown to the two, Inkopolis had a gnarly thunderstorm due in late that night. Which Eight quickly discovered she wasn’t all that fond of! Though, As much as she was panicking, it was nothing like the first time she experienced that dream quite a while ago on the sofa. 

She didn’t want to wake Three up by any means, she just wanted the loud noises to stop. It was so hard to pinpoint why they felt familiar, why _did_ they feel familiar!? Just from the fact alone that she couldn’t work it out was adding to her stress and frustration. Knees pulled up to her chest, she glanced towards where a glimmer of streetlight was sneaking in through the curtains, ears quivering as the little pitter patter of rain filled the room.

“Eight?” 

_Fuck._

“Oh, uh? Y-Yeah?” The attempt to make her voice sound normal, calm and collected crashed and burned the seconds she started to talk, which in turn caused Three to scramble to sit up.

“Are you alright? What’s wrong??? You sound like you’ve uh-” She took a moment to wipe her eye, getting accustomed to the night light that was the girl next to her. “Like you’ve been crying? You know you could’ve woken me up if something was wrong right and-” 

A sudden flash of lightning caused the Octoling to tense up and bury her face into her arms. Ooooh… 

Well. That explains that.

“It’s. It’s just thunder, yeah? It’s just uh. The noise lightning makes… It can sound like its far away or close but its just. Noise. That's all it is.”

…

No response… Hmn.

Taking a moment, Three moved a hand behind to shift a pillow up behind her, leaning back and taking a breath. 

“Y’know, when I was little I was really scared of thunderstorms. They used to like. Freak me out. My mom never really used to get it but she… She used to get our big umbrella and take me outside onto the porch and show me and well uh. The first time I saw lightning I cried and ran back inside and accidentally managed to lock myself in one of the cabinets in the kitchen ‘cause that's where I thought would be the most safe.” 

Another rumble, yet much more softer.

“It’s not a dumb thing to be scared of. It’s loud, its bright. Sorta reminds me of when we had to explore abandoned domes back in the valley, they’d make all sorts of noise.”

That seemed to get a rise out of her, a shift of her head and Three could tell from the way her bioluminescence lit up that pretty face that she was being looked at. 

“I… _Think_ that's what it reminded me of… I don’t know. I don’t remember shit from down there… Do you uh. Do you know anything about what it was like in the Valley? Cause I’m pretty sure that's where I’m from.”

Huh, so Eight was a Valley Octopus… not a Canyon one. Makes sense. She probably would’ve been down there fighting Four if so.

“Uh. Not much.”

Hard to bring up Agent related memories when you’d been trying to repress them ever since your roommate bled all over your floor and passed out on your carpet. 

“I try not to remember much ‘cause I didn’t really enjoy my stay down there, if I’m honest. Being an Agent isn’t all glitz and glam like most people probably think it is… But right uh… the Valley, it...” 

Any attempt to try and drag up old memories caused goosebumps to flood the Inkling’s skin, her face twisting to one of discomfort. 

“I... I know that’s. Where the notch in my ear came from. It…” 

Why. _Why_ was it burning so much right now? Fuck! Why couldn’t she just bring up memories like a normal person!? 

“The uh. One of the weapons I fought did it and it. It was in those kettle things? Ya know the underground stuff. I… I was kinda babyish about it after I defeated it… I remember… uh” 

Three remembered dragging herself out of a rattling, whistling kettle and that her ear was bleeding onto the ground. That her hands were scratched up from gripping her hand me down heroshot so hard, that she couldn’t see or hear past her tears and sobs. She remembered that specific, cold tone telling her she chose to do this and she had a job to do and that she _needed_ to get up. 

Three remembered wanting to go home. 

“Three?” 

“ _Fuck_ \- S-Sorry? Yeah? Ye-Yeah I’m still here.” 

“Are you okay?” 

“Ye _ah_ , I’m fuckin’ stellar why do you ask?” Such a rough voice crack was surely helping her case.

“You’re crying.” 

Raising a hand up to her cheek, her ears sprung up in surprise to find out that she _was_ indeed crying. 

“S-Sorry. I know that’s- that’s literally the worst piece of information you could get about the Valley, I’m tryin’a remember as much as I can I-i’m sorry, I can try and contact Cuttlefish tomorrow and see if he-” 

All words that she was about to verbally spit out all over the bedsheets in a desperate attempt to form an apology were halted from the sudden weight on her shoulder. She knew it was Eight, but _why_ Eight had suddenly leaned half of her body weight against Three was unknown to her.

“Uuuh… Eight?” 

A rough half laugh-half snort came from the girl beside her. “I’m the one who should be apologisin’ now, I can’t even think of words ‘n junk.” 

With the Octarians body weight right up against her, Three could feel each flinch as the thunder outside unhelpfully let itself be known once again.

“Words are hard, I don’t blame you… Still. I’m sorry, Eight, I just…” 

“Heyyyyy. Three. I don’t care if you can’t remember stuff about the Valley, it must’ve been rough down there for you to get upset like that… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before.” 

A rather disgruntled noise left Three. Cod, how she would have rather it _stayed_ that way. 

“Yeah but you… you seemed like you wanted to try and remember what it was like down there for you, I mean, I wouldn’t know what to do if I couldn’t remember my home and-” 

“The Valley isn’t my home?” 

“... Okay you’ve completely lost me.” 

As much as Three would’ve liked to pointed out that Eight’s tentacle was currently looping around and squeezing her bicep, she decided to keep her mouth closed.

“Well. _Okay_ the Valley was probably, maybe _once_ my home but I cannot remember a single thing about it. Don’t think I ever will at this rate! But I’m fine with that… Besides, from the way you reacted it didn’t seem like all that great of a place so maybe its better I leave it in the depths of forgetaboutitville and move on.” 

Words escaped the Inkling as she glanced over to the other side of the room, trying to think of something useful to say for once in her life.

“That and Inkopolis with you and everyone else is my home now…” 

If Three could describe the odd amount of warmth flowing through her entire body, she would’ve had to have created several new words just to get a vague explanation of the feeling across. 

“Really?” 

“Really, really.” 

Aside from the sound of the rain hitting the window pane and the odd, low growl of thunder, the room was cast in silence. The Inkling had no idea how much time had passed until it hit her that someone had most definitely fallen asleep. There was absolutely no mistaking that snoring. 

With a low sigh and a touch as gentle as one could, Eight was pushed down onto the bed. As much as she would’ve been fine leaving her there to drool all over her shoulder, she figured the other girl would be more comfy i>in bed. Finally settling down herself, a quick glance was shot over to the other girl just to make sure she didn't disturb her too much. 

What she got was the delightful view of her snuggling herself back down into that pillow, though seemingly unsatisfied she began to shift until her head bumped Three’s arm. The girl in question swallowed thickly as Eight shifted her way over, despite being taller than Three, she was so far down the bed that it appeared the other way around. 

It seemed Eight just wanted to be close for tonight. Hell, Eight wanted to be close _every_ night… But, it was storming something heavy outside. Who was Three to deny her some closeness in this time of need? Besides, acting as if this was a special one time thing she _allowed_ her to do in desperate times and not just the usual bedtime routine certainly calmed her overly excited hearts. 

No thundering sounds nor flashes of lighting could dare attempt to wake the dozing pair as Three finally started to drift off herself, the unusual feeling of warmth in her stomach causing an odd, crackly purr to rev up in the back of her throat without her even realising. 

 

* * *

“Pleeeaseeeee!” 

This was the fifth plea Three had heard this morning and it was really starting to ruin her cereal eating endeavours. 

The line was drawn when Eight flopped herself rather close to her thigh. Now, this didn’t sound like a necessarily bad thing but the poor Inkling was wearing nothing but shorts and having Eight’s face so close to bare skin was more than enough for her, causing Three to immediately jerk away, nearly spilling cereal all over the carpet. 

Struggling for a moment as she swallowed a mouthful of food, her left ear twitched in frustration as she was finally able to speak.

“Eight! For fucks sake I’m tryina’ eat!” 

“But you still haven’t told me if you’re gonna come! I don’t wanna go to my ‘congratulations for doing so well on the surface for a good couple of months’ party without you!” 

“That’s not a real _thing!_ They don’t make cards for it!” 

With her face still pressed against the sofa cushions from the previous attempt to flop beside the other, Eight pulled herself up into a sitting position, a slight pout crossing her face.

“Neither is ‘ _Bingewatch all the Pokemon movies and don’t go to sleep till five am_ ’ but you don’t see me getting on your ass about it.” 

… Three couldn’t really argue with that.

It wasn’t like she was going to say no to this, Eight had been overly excited for such a seemingly stupid event for the last couple of days now…. She couldn’t turn down the other when she was _that_ excited. There was just the teeny tiny issue of Pearl and Marina being right there, it being their supposed home, and the potential for her getting mocked. None of which Three really liked.

Sighing in defeat, she finally gave the other a proper response. “Fine, Fine. I’ll come, but I’m not gonna dress up fancy.” 

The amount of excitement and glee that lit up the others face from simple acceptance was illegal, and whatever it was doing to her hearts was also banned and illegal and just _not allowed._

“Sweet! Okay, so Pearl said it’ll probably be happening around noonish so I figured we could head over there like… I dunno, elevenish? Is that good with you? And, oh, don’t worry, she said it's a completely casual thing! Just a chill day!” 

That was _somewhat_ relieving to hear. After the absolute mess of their ‘First Date’ Three never wanted to drift away from her usual attire ever again. Sweatshirts, tank tops, hoodies and sweatpants were all she was going to wear for the rest of eternity. No matter what.

“Yeah, sure, can I be left to my food now?” Almost possessively, she held the bowl away from Eight with a scowl. 

“Can I mayhaps join you?” 

Fuck. There it was again. Those stupid fucking endearing pretty orange eyes for fucks sake. 

“Sure.” 

It surprised the agent how fast time had ticked on, but here she was donning her usual grey hoodie and light green sneakers. A few months ago her ‘usual’ would’ve been her unwashed agent gear and her cape, luckily both of which were now nowhere to be seen. And here she was, about to head out to catch a bus to some fancy ass house and spend the day with two specific people she really wasn’t all too fond of. 

And as much as the poor Inkling thought it couldn’t get worse than that, the second the two had arrived on the property, Three locked eyes with someone they certainly _didn’t_ expect to see. Bright pink eyes, perked up ears, freckles all over the place. Yup, that was most certainly - 

“Four?! I didn’t know you were going to be here?!” 

The ornate fence surrounding the property was completely ignored as Eight pole vaulted herself over to go say hello to the other Agent sitting out in the front yard, Three deciding to take the easy way in by opening the gate. Which proved to be harder than it looked. After struggling with the damn thing for more than two minutes, she finally just opted for following in Eight’s rule breaking ways and stumbling her way over the top. Damn fences. 

Three still wasn’t all too sure why she was currently standing in the admittedly pretty front garden of Pearl and Marina. Eight was chatting away with Four and that other Octoling that had more or less tackled her to the ground a few days ago. Excitement clearly laced the groups voices, but Three was far too tired to pick up on any of that. 

Though once their little chitchat had ended and the group headed in, Eight did finally fill her in on what exactly was happening. 

“So! Turns out Pearl and Marina invited Four and their friend over too!! They’d only just got here which is why they were out in the garden but! This is like, the best thing ever, everyone I like in one place. I guess aside from Callie but she’s probably busy, wouldn’t wanna pester her.” Eight’s claws tacked together as the two walked inside. 

It was annoying, annoying and infectious how an excitable Eight was enough to get Three’s lips perking upwards. Though that wasn’t due to last long as the sudden overly loud voice of Pearl broke whatever conversation the two were going to potentially delve into.

“YO!!! EIGHT!!” 

Being an Agent definitely taught Three a few things about predicting. Though, sadly, being a incompetent dumbass lesbian running on low sleep this meant that she was far too slow to predict that Pearl was going to charge directly at Eight for a tight hug, nearly bowling Three over in the process.

“Pearlie… C’mon, you don’t wanna choke her out on her special day!” 

Marina got a scoff in response as Pearl tilted her head up at her. “She might want that!” 

With a half wheeze, half laugh, Eight chuckled as she was squeezed. For being so small, Pearl had a lot of strength for stuff like this! “I’m cool with it!” 

Everyone getting acquainted and saying their greetings didn’t last too long as Pearl began to lead them somewhere else, Three began to slowly trail behind the group as they chattered excitedly ahead. As expected, Pearl’s place was large, but the agent was more focused on the floor than anything at this point. This was completely out of her comfort zone. This meant a lot to Eight, she didn’t want to crush that excitement by being a downer. She just hoped that no one expected her to be social.

She couldn’t really pinpoint why social gatherings, even ones this small, bothered her. _Was it even the gathering?_ Chimed a rather annoying voice in the back of her head as her hands retreated into her hoodie pockets. _Oh it couldn’t be the fact that that little crush on Eight has been getting worse and worse, could it?_

Oh, how Three wished she could slap that internal voice. Mismatched eyes flickered up to see exactly where they were as she noticed the group had come to a halt. A rather large room with sofas scattered here and there, it looked pretty comfy actually, but there was no chance in hell she was going to sit down and get settled. No _**way.**_ There was a flat screen attached to the wall on the left side, and a stereo system on the right, as well as various other decorations; coffee table, shelves, posters on the wall. The usual, she supposed. 

Instead of focusing on the decor, her eyes came to rest on Eight who had just the most _delightful_ look of glee on her face while talking to the two idols… _Cute._

As much as she wasn’t involved, she glad to see this wasn’t anything crazy. Just a little get together to hang out with some music (not her taste, but whatever.) and celebrate Eight’s undisclosed amount of days on the surface, because who was _really_ keeping track of that by now… 

She was at least pleased about the fact that no one was bothering her, focus lazily drifting to one of the various framed movie posters Pearl had up in this room. It must’ve been something interesting as she hadn’t even noticed a particular teal pest shifting closer to her, an odd garbled noise leaving her beak as her shoulders shot up in surprise from their thighs suddenly touching. 

With how fast her head snapped around, it was surprising that the sound of a whipcrack to follow, eyes turning to mere pinpricks as she shot a glare at whoever _dared_ get so fucking close to her and interrupt her daydreaming…

Oh, it was Four. Of course it was Four.

And whatever that shiteating grin on their face meant, Three wanted nothing to do with it. Yet she still bit at whatever they were grinning at, and odd huff leaving her as she quirked a brow. “ _What?_ ”

“Soo… How’d it go?” 

Three felt her lip quiver in some sort of odd grimace of just having to _interact_ with this little pest. 

“How’d what go? My day? It was a whole lot better ‘till _you_ started pestering me.” 

The giggle she got from the response just made her skin crawl.

“No, no! Not that! Though I _am_ flattered that my presence can affect your day so much! But I’m talking about the date!” 

It was hard to describe the amount of panic rushing through her veins as the other finished their sentence, the only thing she could compare it too was nearly fainting a shiny Pokemon. Or perhaps dropping a really really important piece of china on hardwood floor. Something between those two. 

Trying to ignore the fact that her face was clearly filling with green, she swallowed thickly before attempting to respond.

“Alright, pipsqueak, do _not_ bring that up here. I don’t need Eight-” 

“Thinking that it was a date?? Three!!! She _knew_ it was a date, I worded it _perfectly_. She’s _absolutely_ into you.” 

Words were already starting to escape the poor Inkling as the over excited and hopeful part of her lesbian brain latched onto exactly what Four was saying. Was that.. Right? Did she really want to go on that date as all sources pointed to or did she just go out of pity like Three’s brain had been telling her the last few days? 

“You just figurin’ that out now?? Wait - you’re _still_ not dating?! After THAT?! What happened after you two left?? Did you like - argue or?” 

“S-Shut it! We’re - I’m. She… I-It is literally _none_ of your business!” Shoving herself forward, Three bared her fangs ever so slightly, feeling her ear twitch in frustration as she was met with the not smug but more pleased grin from the other Inkling.

“It’s _all_ of my business! Oh my cod, Three. You should ask her now!! At this party! This’ll be perfect!!! Go go go!” Four nodded towards the Octarian currently being shown some kind of record from Pearl, this incredible, breathtaking twinkle of excitement in her orange eyes that was turning Three’s stomach to jelly. Good thing this music was just above normal volume or Eight’d have probably heard Four’s over excitable voice giving away everything she’d been trying to lock down and ruin fucking _everything_ like usual. 

“Absolutely _fucking_ not.” 

“Three!” Four leant forward, grabbing the others wrist and squeezing them tight. “You shouldn’t hold all this stuff in anymore! It’s not good!! I think, out of everyone, Eight deserves to know… Y’know? I totally respect your wishes so I’m not gonna tell her myself but I think, for your sake too, you should _tell_ her. You two always seem so close it’d just feel… Right, ya know?” 

Three hated, _despised_ , _**loathed**_ how right Four was right now. She’d feel a million times better just telling Eight, but doing that? Fuck no. She’d been through hell and back with the agency and fought actual, real fucking war machines and this was STILL harder than all of that. Ugh. Romance sucked. This _SUCKED._

“Oh, shoot… Uh, Three are you okay?? Like… You’re, uh, getting all teary eyed.” 

Oh, for fucks’ _SAKE._

Blinking twice and squeezing her eyes shut, Three yanked her arms away from the others grip, standing up quickly and wiping an arm across her face with a sniffle. “I’m. Fine, thanks. I’ll be back, I just need a second. If Eight asks, tell her I won’t be long.” 

With no idea where the fuck she was going or what she was doing, a beeline was made towards the nearest door, hoping it wouldn’t draw too much attention as it was clicked shut. She wasn’t bailing, oh no, she just… Needed a minute to collect her thoughts. 

Though, with her hasty exit, it quickly became apparent she had no idea where she was. Of course, she knew her way back, the door was right there. But this was _not_ the way they’d come in. No, this was a long hallway with several windows giving off an almost homely natural light. She had to admit, Pearl and Marina’s place was more homely than she thought it would be… Or well, Pearl’s parents? She genuinely had no idea. 

She’d honestly expected the place to be like those large mansions you’d seen in movies, all white with the big pillars and marble floors but… nope. This was just like a really nice modern house, though it was _just_ foreign enough to make her feel weirdly homesick. Cod, how _pathetic._

Taking a few steps away from the door, she pressed her back against a nearby wall and slowly slid down till she could form that perfect ball shape, taking a deep breath. Cod, this was far too much for her fragile lesbian heart. Four didn’t have the fucking _rights_ , the fucking _**permit**_ to toy with her feelings like that! How _dare_ they make her realise just how deep she really was in this romance mess!

Fuck, today really wasn’t going as planned.

Not going as planned for one cephaloperson at least, Eight was having the time of her life! Oh this was _exactly_ what she hoped today would be! Pearl and Marina and Four and Seabreeze and literally everyone else!! She hadn’t even met Seabreeze ‘till today but wow was she glad she had!! 

Everything was more or less perfect for the Octarian, perfect until it suddenly hit her that a specific grump was missing. The signed record from Squid Squad that Pearl was showing her had caught her interest for one reason alone: That was the band that Three liked, right? Wanting to immediately show the other had resulted in the realization of the others disappearance. 

An odd cloud of doubt began to build up in her upper chest and, oh! Eight did not like that at all! Though it was hard not to be concerned that maybe Three really didn’t want to be here, after all… Had she gotten up and gone home on her own? Well, there was no point in immediately jumping to the negatives! Time to find out where her missing Agent was.

Part of her really wished she had a tiny detective hat and magnifying glass as she told Pearl she’d be right back, shuffling over to the sofa area with a soft smile on her face. No, she wasn’t worried right now why do you ask! 

“Hey, Four, do you know where Three went?” 

Today had sure been overwhelming at first for the fourth agent of the Squidbeak Platoon, being asked to come to their idols home?! That was a surefire way to wake up! And getting to celebrate with their friends new life on the surface for the first couple of months?! Oh, today was just fantastic. 

Aside from right now. Right now was making the agent sweat. Oh… What to do, what to do... They _knew_ Three needed to admit her feelings or she’d probably explode, that was the only logical conclusion right now. And that could not happen. But they couldn’t just tell Eight where Three went, could they? As much as they were absolutely desperate to just spill everything and give away Three’s location, they had to respect her privacy! This was something for her to do on her own! But what if she never did?! What if she was just stuck in this awful time loop of pinning after Eight for years to come and-

“She went through that door, I think she’s still in the hallway.” 

“Oh! Thank you, Seabreeze!” 

A breath Four wasn’t even aware they were holding was quickly released as they lowered their head, a warm and comforting hand patting their shoulder. One that they were very much used to at this point. Tilting their head to glance up at the person offering slight comfort, they couldn’t help but smile. 

“Thanks, Bree. You’re an absolute lifesaver.” 

It didn’t feel exactly _good_ to leave her own party behind, but it was only for a few minutes! Eight was on a mission here, finding Three and making sure she didn’t - oh! There she was! 

Not expecting to find her so quickly, Eight was full on ready to dash over to the other and drag her right back to the party but everything about Three’s body language told her to slow her step and approach with a more moderate pace. Yet, with such wide open hallways, the sound of her footsteps against hardwood was enough to caused the hunched over Inkling’s head to jolt up.

The two met eyes, and Three scrambled into a sitting position. Eight wasn’t really a fan of the panic lacing those two toned eyes, so her moderate pace was shifted into a quick jog up as she approached the other.

Towering above her as usual, Three couldn’t find the will to stand as she tried to maintain eye contact. Somewhere in the back of her mind huffily agreed she was _STILL_ far too tall.

“I wasn’t ditching. I just. Needed a minute.” 

Eight was mad, Eight _had_ to be mad. She probably just ruined Eight’s entire goddamn day with her stupid panicking. She honestly expected the Octarian to storm off and leave her in this hallway alone, at least that was what her panicked brain was assuming. Eight sinking down to sit next to her was one of the biggest reliefs she had ever felt in her life.

“... Aren’t you missing your party?” 

If Three could mentally slap herself for every stupid thing that came out of her mouth, her subconscious would be bruised to hell and back. 

The taller girl shrugged, offering a far too warm smile for this entire situation. “Nah. Party’s great and all ‘n I’m super thankful for it but it’s nice to be out here with you too, y’know? If you wanna be out here for a bit, I’d love to offer some company.” 

Silence enveloped the pair. It was a common thing for how much time they spent together, but this _wasn’t_ their usual silences. Eight’s mind began to wander as she desperately tried to read Three’s body language in an attempt to figure out what was up without actually asking. She knew Three wasn't exactly a social butterfly but this was different, something was _clearly_ wrong and detective Eight was going to get to the bottom of it!! Even if Three's current demeanour was tugging at her heart strings. 

She just looked so... so beaten down, done in. Like she was about to give up... Cod, how she wanted nothing more than to just drag the shorter girl closer to her and hold her till this all went away, maybe even kiss her forehead and - Eight’s ears shot up, a light pink dusting her cheeks. Thoughts like that were not abnormal for her but for some odd reason this time around it was making her stomach flip… Somewhere in her mind, something was telling her to finally come clean with how she’d been viewing the other.

And the word quitter didn’t suit Eight.

“Hey Three… So, uh. I’ve done research on Inkling relationships and stuff, lately. For a bit. You know me, researching type and all.” 

The word ‘relationship’ was a fork-in-socket kind of feeling for the Inkling, her head jerking up to look at the other. She had _no_ idea how she managed to keep such a calm, hell even confused, expression as the other continued.

“And well.-”

“Wait, is that why fanfiction.net has been in my history recently?” Expression shifting towards more of a squint, Three tilted her head. 

Being a total miracle worker with words, Eight _smoothly_ avoided that subject entirely. “A-Anyways, Three I. I don’t really know how to explain this, or if I’m even doing it right or if Inklings have some kind of… Special _way_ to do this but. I. I _like_ what we have going. Just us, together. I don’t know what we’d class it as, personally but-”

Every single part of Three was currently ablaze as the other began to speak, first and foremost. **AAAH????**

In some sort of weird defense mechanism to make sure her brain didn’t completely melt at the very concept that mayhaps Eight was _confessing._ Three started doing one of the worst possible things, running her mouth.

“Are you getting embarrassed?” 

“What? Psh- No. Coming from you? You’re all fuckin’ green!” 

Ah… It appears this defense mechanism was faulty and broken and she wanted a fucking refund. 

“You look like a steamed cabbage right now.”

“EXCUSE ME???” 

For some odd reason, hearing that shrill, flustered voice calmed Eight’s nerves just a tad. 

“But anyways! Let me finish, let me finish!” Shifting a tad closer, she continued with a much softer voice “What we having going… It’s so great I just- I wanna take it forward ‘n all that junk… You. You wanna try it out?” 

As vague as that was, by _COD_ Three hoped she meant what she thought she meant… She wanted to agree immediately, scream to the heavens in excitement. But that little shred of doubt was keeping her quiet as she did nothing but maintain silent eye contact with the other.

“You don’t have to say yes.” 

“I’m. Not going to say _no_ , Eight.” 

“Yeah, but know you can.” 

More silence slowly crept in as the Inkling struggled to find words akin to excited screaming and nervous hesitation. Pearl’s obnoxiously loud, yet still droned out, laughter and the soft muffled music was the only thing disturbing the stillness of the hallway.

Neither were sure how much time had passed before Three finally said something.

“... I think I’d like that.” 

A soft, shaky sigh left Three once the words were out and _Oh_. Eight was suddenly very aware of her close she’d shifted. She could feel that on her lips. Amber eyes flickered to meet deep and ice blue all at once in a silent question, yet neither moved like the other hoped.

Three physically could not take this a second longer.

Faint was the murmur that left her beak, so faint that there was no way Eight could pick up on whatever she was trying to say.

Leaning in closer, Eight’s ears perked in an attempt to catch it once more. “Sorry, what did you say?” 

Yet another quiet mumble, albeit just _slightly_ louder. For anyone who knew the agent in question, seeing her this quiet would be almost uncanny.

“Three, dude, I _cannot_ understand a word you’re saying.” 

Growling partly to herself, Three clenched her fists inside her hoodie pocket, taking in a deep breath before finally speaking up.

“C-can you fuckin’ kiss me! Cod, I-"

Whatever Three was going to ramble on about after was totally wiped from her mind, quickly replaced with excitement and bliss as Eight’s lips just barely touched hers. A few awkward seconds of staying stationary, almost as if she was making sure this was okay despite the less than subtle request, before a clawed hand reached up to cup the others flushed cheek and the gap was finally closed. 

Nothing about it was professional or perfect about this, that fact was more or less secured as Three felt her nose squish against Eight’s own. A breathless chuckle against her own lips caused a heavy shudder to run down her non-existent spine as Eight tilted her head to make things just a little more smoother. Three would mentally kick herself for it later but part of her wished she could reach out and wrap her arms around the others neck and just, stay there, feeling her breath and her lips for as long as possible.

Yet, alas, as much Three wanted this to last as long as it could since the fear of this being yet _another_ stupid dream was starting to creep in on her, air was something the two both needed. An inevitable break away was soon upon them. 

Gasping softly once the two were separated, the Inkling slowly opened her eyes, quite surprisingly really since she didn't remember them falling shut! Still trying to get her bearings and her breath back, Three opened her mouth only to be met with Eight’s own in another quick, light kiss before the other finally pulled back for good.

Three was exactly two seconds away from melting into a little puddle on the floor. 

"By the way, I heard you the first time."

Now Three was a soon to be _angry_ puddle on the floor. The audacity of this Octarian with her stupid, attractive snarky grin!!

“But thank _COD_ you picked up on what I was saying! I thought If I said the world girlfriend you would’ve exploded all over the wall.”

Still unable to form words, Three expressed her feelings towards that statement with a less than gentle punch, scowling up at Eight. The smile she got in response only worsened the mushy state of her insides. 

Taking a moment, Eight stood, arms throw haphazardly above her head in a well needed stretch as a satisfied noise left her. Limbs flopping lifelessly down as a happy chitter left her, turning to glance down at her companion still on the floor. The light from the nearby window framing her _almost_ perfectly, Three would argue it was blocking too much of her face from this angle.

“You gonna get up, _Girlfriend?_ ” 

The clawed hand extended out to her as far too inviting to Three, who immediately tugged herself up onto shaky legs. It seemed Eight was some kind of fucking mind reader, or she was just dead set on turning Three into actual goop by the end of the day, as she quickly swooped in to wrap an arm around the shorters waist, tugging her close.

“Don’t push it, I still might explode.” 

The snort that left Eight caused a warm smile to grace Three’s features. 

“You ready to come back to the party then?”

“Yeah, I think I’m ready.”

Without another word, the two headed back towards the previously deserted room. Not even Pearl’s overly loud ‘Welcome back’ could falter the sappy grin on the shorter girls face.


End file.
